Equestria Guardians Friendship is Magic
by Stone-Man85
Summary: Six girls have been chosen to protect our world from the Forces of Darkness and Evil. Armed with the Elements of Harmony from a forgotten world, they discover that the most powerful magic in the universe, is that born of friendship.
1. The Return of Friendship pt 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic; it is the sole property of Hasbro and its creators, Rob Renzetti and Lauren Faust. Original Characters are my own design. Except for Toby Morrison, aka, Crimson Dawn; he is the sole property of seniorcopycat. Also, the designs of the characters came from Mauroz on his Deviantart site. His artwork and comic are the major inspiration from this, so credit goes to him on this story.**

* * *

**Equestria Guardians; Friendship is Magic**

* * *

**Chapter 1: The Return of Friendship pt.1**

* * *

_A long time ago, in a world separate and different from our own known, lived a race of sentient ponies. Ponies of different species and function of the three races: Earth, Pegasus, and Unicorn. They all lived together in the magical land of Equestria. And this land was governed by the two regal sister Alicorns, Princesses Celestia and Luna; ponies that were earth, unicorn, and Pegasus all in one. To do this, they used their powers to control the changing of the days; Celestia used her powers to raise the sun at down, the younger, brought out the moon by night. Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their people._

_But as time went on… a darkness crept into Luna's heart; like a poison, its venomous influence blinded her of the coming evil that would soon inflict on them all. In her blindness, the darkness convinced her to become resentful. The ponies relished in the day her elder sister brought forth, while they shunned slept during her time at night._

_The darkness convinced her one fateful day, to refuse to lift the moon down, thus creating an everlasting night. The Darkness took advantage of this, and seized control of the kingdom, while Luna demanded her sister to give her control of night and day. _

_Celestia tried to convince her sister to see reason in this, but the Darkness's influence on her only caused her heart to be filled with bitterness and hate. The Darkness, seeing her as a perfect vessel, transformed Princess Luna… into Nightmare Moon: the Darkness's manipulated champion. She vowed she would shroud all of Equestria within an eternal night._

_Reluctantly, Celestia harnessed the most powerful magic known to Equestria: the Elements of Harmony. _

_Using the magic of the Elements, she defeated and banished her sister to the Moon, sealing her off. Thus the Darkness banished, but vowed to forever swear revenge on Celestia… by destroying the Elements themselves, and reeking only havoc on her world._

_But Celestia managed to think ahead of the Darkness, and sent herself, the Elements of Harmony as well as a proper guardian, to seek out those who would be worthy of becoming the Guardians to the elements. She prayed that the new world after Equestria would safeguard the magic within the elements, and that the Darkness's threat would forever be left in the wind._

_But should the Darkness rise again, the Elements of Harmony would seek out the chosen ones destined to wield their magic, and one day… defeat the Darkness once and for all. But during that, Celestia had to find the one who would help band them together, and thus began the search for her apprentice._

_Over time, Celestia fought many evils who tried to free the entrapped Nightmare Moon, as well as to steal the hidden Elements of Harmony. Celestia searched for centuries. And never, it is said, will Celestia waver from her quest, for the world she was reborn in would never be safe, until the Mare in the Moon was destroyed by the Guardians of Harmony._

* * *

**Earth**

**Ponyville City**

**2010**

In a place called Ponyville City, the quaint little city down roads were swarmed with a few cars and wagons making their way from here to there. The people of the city were walking up and down the streets, all day and every night, going about their business without a care in the world. There were also tall, concrete buildings that stretched towards the sky, almost making the place look like a giant prison. Well, more like a quaint country town turned into a thriving but nice metropolis that still cared about the townfolk.

Down the road, during the afternoon, a bus drove down the little busy streets. A school bus carrying a bunch of kids to go to their destination. A whole bunch of the kids were excited to go to wherever they were headed to, while one occupant was busy with her studies. She was a young girl around the age of ten, with Caucasian pale skin, purple eyes that were sharp in reading her book, and a head of dark violet hair going down to her midback, with a pink and indigo streak on the right side was visible. She wore a purple t-shirt with a dark purple jacket, along with a pink skirt and socks, complete with purple shoes. She had a brown backpack with her name etched into the back of it by stitching. The name on the backpack was Twilight Sparkle.

Her violet eyes scanned the pages intently, while the others just chatted and played around. It felt like she was the only nerd oddball in the bus.

"Hey, Twilight," a young girl spoke up behind her. She had hair that was a mix of ivory and pink, curly at the bangs and ends of her hair, electric blue eyes, Caucasian, and wearing a lovely pink dress. Her name was Twinkleshine, a classmate of Twilight, as was another girl sitting next to her. She was Caucasian with a cerulean head of hair, ruby eyes, and wore a yellow shirt with blue jean shorts, and blue and yellow sneakers. Her name was Lemon Hearts, and Twinkleshine's best friend.

Twilight stopped her studying, as she looked up to see Twinkleshine and Lemon Hearts. Awkwardly, she waved, "Oh hi."

"Hey," Twinkleshine smirked. "Moondancer's having a little get-together over at her boat house. After the field trip, you wanna come along?"

Twilight went a little wide eye on that, but shook erh head, as she returned to normal, "Nah, I'm sorry. I got a lot of studying to catch up on. I don't have time for stuff like that."

Twinkeshine huffed, as she and Lemon Hearts sat back down, as Lemon Hearts pointed out, "See? I told you she wouldn't come along. All she does is study."

"I know, right," Twinkleshine agreed. "I think she's more interested in books than making friends. She's just a weirdo."

Their insults didn't go unheard, as Twilight curled up in a ball on her seat. Ever since she was littler, she had never made any friends. The only people she had ever counted on was her big brother, Shining Armor, and her adopted baby brother, Spike, who had turned six this year. She knew that as long as she had those two, she didn't have any need for friends. And so she told herself silently, "I'm not werid. I'm just… different."

She then looked at the window, and saw the buildings go by. She lit up a little, as she knew that they were passing a certain area. She pulled out a marker, and started doodling on the window. Nobody bothered to notice it but her, as she went on uninterrupted. As she finished, she had drawn an illustration of what appeared to be King Kong being attacked by an airplane, as he fought it off, while climbing empty space. But as soon as the bus was passing a tall tower, the illustration lined up with the building, which made Twilight smile.

"Cool."

Twilight nearly jumped at that voice, as she looked for the source of it. But then she spotted someone smiling at her, and made bullseye with the one who said cool. He was a young Caucasian boy of ten, much like she was, with blue eyes, and dark blue hair that was short and shaggy on the bangs. He wore a white T-shirt, blue jean pants, red and white sneakers, and had a black sweatshirt tied around his waist.

The boy smiled to her honestly and waved to her casually. Twilight, on the other hand, shyly waved back in reply, and then looked away, feeling a burning feeling on her face, as she let a small smile appear on her face.

* * *

**Later On**

**Greensfield Park**

Greensfield Park was a bit like Central Park to say the least. Big, green, and possibly the only bit of natural forest around Ponyville, aside from the Ever-Free Forest that surrounded the city town. The kids were sitting down on stone seats, as their teacher, Ms. Cramtree, was going over the history of Ponyville in this sector of town, "… which means that before Greensfield Park, much less Ponyville was built…"

Twilight was paying very close attention to the lecture, taking notes with everything the teacher was saying. However, the boy, who was sitting far away from her, just finished down a note, and looked to another boy. He was around the same age as the blue haired boy, Caucasian with slightly tanned, red hair combed to the right side, blue eyes, who wore a pair of blue jeans, a white T-shirt, and had on a red vest, as well as a red cap.

"Crimson," the boy replied, getting Crimson's attention.

"What's up, Flash," Crimson asked.

He then handed the boy a note, and then pointed to Twilight, "Can you pass this on down to that girl?"

Crimson looked down, and noticed the very-focused Twilight, as he looked to Flash, "Wha… Twilight Sparkle?"

"That's her name? Twilight Sparkle?" Flash asked. Crimson nodded, but hten Flash took back the letter and wrote on the letter, To: Twilight Sparkle. "Okay, pass it to Twilight."

Crimson shrugged, as he gave it ot the person next over, "Pass it on."

"Pass it to Twilight. Here."

Once the note made its way down, it was placed on Twilight's notes, which surprised her. She stopped her note taking, as she opened the letter. And was surpsried to say the least, as it read a cross list, with only two options.

_In Five years, what would be our relationship?_

*Friends?

*More than friends?

Twilight practically blushed at that question. She slammed the note on her pad, as she looked around, wondering who had sent the note in the first place. But then, when she turned to her right, she saw that boy again, as he waved innocently at her, smiling. She gulped, and pulled back, wondering with frantic thoughts in her head, 'What? What's going on?! What did I do to get that boy's attention? And the whole more than just friends thing? I barely know him, so why…'

But before her mind could panic even more, a gust of wind blew in the air. Everyone felt the air blowing at them, even Twilight as she shielded herself from the wind. However, in doing so, she lost her grip on the note, causing it to get blown away. Twilight spotted this, as she shot up, "No. NONONONONONO!" And then without thinking about it, ran after the note.

Ms. Cramtree noticed Twilight running away, as she called out to bring her back, "Ms. Sparkle!"

"I lost my notes," she only said half-truthfully, "I'll be back!" And continued to run after the note.

After a few minutes of running after it through the park, the letter stopped into a puddle. Twilight stopped, as she huffed and puffed, having to run after just to keep up with it. She leaned down to pick it up… until a bike messenger rode nearby, and somehow the note got attached to the bike wheel speeding off.

Twilight sweat dropped, as she complained, "UGH! HOW DOES THAT EVEN HAPPEN?!" She then ran after the bike messenger, as she shouted, "Hey, wait! Stop! You've got my note!"

* * *

**A Few While Later**

The bike stopped, having reached 3rd Street, as the note fell off onto the ground. Twilight, nearly exhausted from running a marathon, slowed down, as she was huffing even more, and finally stopped, seeing the letter fall off the bike. She leaned on her knees, as she saw the note down near her feet. She sighed, catching her breath, "Finally…" And reached down for the note…

…only for a French Poodle to run out there, and snatch the note in its teeth, as it sped across the quiet and less-busy street. Seeing that happen, Twilight stared at the dog's form, until she blew up, "ARGH! WHY IS THIS STUFF HAPPENING TO ME!?"

She then chased after the poodle, dodging the slow traffic in the streets, as she called out, "Hey, stop! Heel! Desist!" But the dog kept running away from her, as she snarled, "Ugh! This is why I hate dogs!"

Twilight had chased the dog down in a brick alleyway full of electric stores. After they had reached the end of the alleyway and back into daylight, the dog spat out the note, and sped off elsewhere. Out of breath and fear of collapsing from a heat stroke, Twilight managed to get to the letter. She stopped, as she huffed out, "Okay. No dogs, no bike messengers. It's just you…" and reached down to grab the note, "… and me…"

But suddenly, the wind picked up, blowing it away from her, as Twilgiht saw the futility in this, as she almost cried out, "Ugh… please somebody make this stop."

But then she saw the note fly over to what appeared to be an antique shop as it stuck to the front door. The shop looked like a duplex from the 1930s, made of brick and harldy seemed to be updated at all. There was a display window of the inside of the store, but it was too foggy to make anything out. But on the window, it said the store's title: Canterlot Cabana. Antiquities, Oddities, Mystical Artifacts, Unusual Gifts.

The street around the store was eerily quiet, almost no activity was happening around the place. It was as if the store and the neighborhood around it was in some time-space warp that only had Twilight be the only person present in the area. But Twilight didn't bother to notice it, as she was too fixated on retrieving the note that had been quite slippery from her grasp. Twilight ran up to the store's stairway leading to the front door, as she spied the store's sign.

She arched an eyebrow, as she credulously scoffed the advertisement, "Mystical Artifacts? Unusual Gifts? Pfft! Boy, these people will do anything for a sale." She then saw the note on the door, still stuck there, and sighed in relief, "Finally. This chase is…" and reached to take it.

But like before, it got away from her, this time, by slipping through the mail slot on the door. Twilight just looked there, frozen in place. A look of calm shock was on her face, showing that she was taking this in. and then a vein popped onto her head, as she shouted, "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!"

Getting fed up with this, she opened the door, and closed it behind her.

* * *

**Inside the Store**

Once inside, Twilight looked around to see where the note was, not caring about the place in particular. But then she spotted the note with her eyes, lying on the floor. She was about to run after it, but then stopped as she took it deep in thought. If she ran after it, the wind or something in particular, like maybe a rat popping up, would take the note on the spot. She had to be careful about this, as she slowly crept her way to it. She tip-toed towards the note, like a thief staying out of sight, with every slow step. Little did she know that someone within the room was watching her from behind a bookcase.

Twilight finally made it ot the note… and tackled it, catching it in her hands. "AHA! Gotcha," she said, as she finally grabbed it. She let out relieved chuckles, as she glared dangerously at the note, "Heheh! AHAHAHAHAHA! Let's see ya get away from me now, you…" But then stopped, as she took notice of the room around her, and of the store itself.

As she looked around, she noticed the place had a variety of exotic things that even she didn't know where they came from. 'Unusual' was hardly the term to describe the store, as she felt the title of the store's wares was a bit limited. In fact, she felt it was an understatement, as she got a good look at it. The store was narrow, but deep, and packed to the brim with a variety selection of unusual and amazing artifacts. An Egyptian mummy casing, weird expressionistic paintings, caligari-esque furniture, a yellow-eyed stuffed owl that Twilight swore was casting weird animated shadows on the wall, as she passed it.

She stopped at a small statue on the desk. The small statue was that of a little dragon. He had diamond-like scales on his head, giving him a kind of slick haired scale look on his head, two eyes narrowed down into a glaring frown look, a fat but long tail ending with a diamond-shaped barb, and a small pair of wings.

She wanted to reach out and touch it, but she felt like she was being watched in the store. Unbeknownst to her, the figure hiding behind the bookcase was slowly walking out, not making a sound or a board creek with their footsteps. Twilight was about to walk out, when something else caught her attention.

A strange looking macabre urn of sorts caught her eyes. It was about two feet in height, and had spooky illustrations painted on them. illustrations of tortured souls and men in agony in writhe on it. In truth, the urn made Twilight gulp in fear, as she was about to step away… when someone spoke up.

"You know the Second Emperor of the Han Dyansty locked his least favorite lover in that urn for five years to the day."

Twilight yelped aloud, as she whipped around to find the owner of the voice. Once she did, she was in bewilderment. The owner of the voice was in fact a young and beautiful woman. She was Caucasian, pale skin almost glowing in light, with dazzling light violet eyes, and aquamarine hair streaked with violet and pink colors, and almost seemed to flow like her hair was water, a body well-proportioned for a woman in her mid twenties. She was dressed in a white button up shirt showing her collar bone and a little cleavage, and exposed what appeared to be a rainbow sun pendant around her neck, a khaki vest buttoned up tightly around her chest and waist, violet pants with khaki high heel boots, as well as white fingerless gloves, and a beautiful white duster jacket that didn't seem to have any trace of dirt or stains on it. The woman had about her a wise, fair, and kind atmosphere around her. Something that Twilight deeply seemed to admire, as her surprised startlement faded from her, as the woman smiled to her.

She walked over to Twilight, as she gently warned, "They say that if you open it, the same thing will happen to you."

Twilight, a little bit freaked out, but still in awe at the woman's amazing beauty and grace, especially in a store like this, spoke up, "I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to touch anything. I was just…"

"Looking for a letter," the woman asked as she knelt down to Twilight's eye level. She nodded, "I saw you in the room, tackling it ot the ground." Twilight blushed in embarrassment, as she looked away, but the woman lightly chuckled, "That's the first time in this store that something like that happened."

"Yeah, that's not usually what I do when a note gets blown, dragged, gnawed, or blown away again," Twilight explained, rather embarrassed. "And then all of a sudden it gets sucked into the mail slot of your store door." That last part caught the woman's interest, as Twilight went on, ignoring the surprised look on her face, as she went on, "I mean, what are the odds of that happening? It's one heck of a coincidental accident."

The woman's surprised look then went relaxed, as she smiled and turned Twilight to her gaze, as she said, "My dear Twilight… there are no accidents. Either fate or destiny." She then stood up, and began to walk to the other side of the room.

But then Twilight's eyes lit up with surprise, as she finally managed to ask, "Wait! How did you know my name was Twilight? I-I-I never said anything…"

But then the woman whipped around, and declared, rather dramatically, "Because I can read minds!"

Twilight jumped back, seemingly surprised by that answer. But the woman's seriousness melted down back to her gentle smile, as she let a small chuckle escape her lips, as she truthfully replied, "No, your name's etched in the back of your book bag."

Twilight blinked, as she pulled her backpack off… only to accidentally knock down a jar of water, as it smashed onto the ground, spilling its contents. She gasped at that, while the woman remained calm about it, as Twilight apologized, "Oh no. I'm so sorry! I-I-I-I'll clean it up. Oh, I hope it wasn't something important."

"Oh, it was nothing special," the woman shrugged. "It was just a jar that had the remains of the springs from the Lost City of Atlantis before it sank into seas." Twilight's face went pale again, as she gulped. But the woman chuckled again, as she stopped, "No, no. it was just a jar of water. As I said, nothing special."

Twilight frowned, as she felt like she was just becoming the butt of a joke now. She sighed, as she turend around, "I should get going. My class is probably looking for me, since I ran so suddenly."

"Well, before you go…" the woman replied, as she walked to Twilight, and stopped nearly a foot from her. "I'd like to give you something."

Twilight frowned, "What? Is it another so-called oddity? Or just some…" and then turned around, as she lit up with surprise. The woman held out by a gold chain to show to Twilight, a beautiful pendant of a six-point star made from what appeared to be rose quartz. Twilight was in awe, as she managed to whisper, "Wow."

"This is a very special gift, not many are afforded by a mere stranger," the woman simply smiled. "If it likes you, you can keep it."

Twilight was hesitant, but she gently took the pendant from the woman. She looked at it, as she found a clamp on the back, and undid it. She then pulled it around her neck, and fastened the lock on it, as she looked at the pendant. It did nothing to indicate that it liked her, which confused the little girl, as the older lady sighed in sorrow.

Twilight looked to it, and then to the woman, as she asked, "I don't understand. How do I know if it likes me?"

Suddenly, her question was answered, as both saw the star glow as brightly as its color. Then suddenly, a pillar of rose quartz light lit up around Twilight, as air seemed to push under her, causing her hair to fly up, and her skirt, if she hadn't put her hands down to keep it from blowing up. Until finally, the light pillar died down, as did the wind, leaving both women surprised by the scene, as all Twilight said in bewilderment, "No… way." She then looked to the woman, as she asked, "What was that? A light show and air effects? I mean, how did you hide the equipment for all that?"

But Twilight stopped, as she saw the lady, silently letting tears stream down her face, as she looked to Twilight. It was almost as if she had seen someone she had been separate from a long time ago. Twilight lightly walked up to her, as she asked, almost reaching for her face with her right hand, "Ma'am? Are you okay?"

But suddenly, the girl was startled, as the woman pulled her into a warm hug, as she wept, "It's you, Twilight. I finally found you."

Twilight blinked in confusion, as she asked, "Found me? What do you mean?"

The woman pulled away, as she dried her eyes, as she smiled, "I'm sorry. It's just…" She took a deep breath, as she finally spoke up, "In truth, Twilight. We once knew each other a long time ago, even before you were born. I have been searching a very long time for you." She then chuckled, as she confessed, "And like magic. True magic. Here you are before me as you once were."

Twilight wasn't sure she understood that, but tried to guess, "Once were? You mean, like in a past life?"

The woman nodded, "Yes, Twilight." She pointed to the pendant around her neck, as she explained, "That pendant around your neck is part of a set of six gems that are important in the future. It means something, Twilight. It means you're going to be a very important person in the future one day."

Twilight was blinking in surprise by that, but before the girl could ask anything, the woman got up, as she walked towards the stairwell that led to the basement. "Wait there," she asked. "I have something important I wish to give you." And then ran down the stairs as fast as she could, leaving Twilight confused.

* * *

**Basement**

Down in the musky basement, the woman walked over to a stone wall and stopped there. Her pendant glowed a little, as she gently tapped on four bricks on the wall. Suddenly, the wall slid open, revealing a small compartment, like a safe, hidden inside of it. There, she pulled out a small hand journal wrapped in a leather coat, and held by a buckle. The next time she pulled out, was a circle casing, with red linen fibers inside it, with a glass lid locked on top of it with golden designs to seal it up. And inside the container were six compartments, with only one vacant.

The other spaces each had a jeweled pendant in them. The first one was a jeweled sapphire balloon going up. The second pendant was an orange topaz shaped like an apple with an emerald leaf on it. The third was a beautiful amethyst carved into a diamond. The fourth gem was a dazzling pink gem shaped like a butterfly spreading its wings. And the final one was a dazzling ruby carved into the shape of a lightning bolt. And the sixth pendant was currently being worn by Twilight at the moment.

The woman smiled, but then turned to a picture buried in the compartment. She pulled it out, revealing a picture of what appeared to be a strange creature of a white horse with wins and a horn. The creature had her exact features, but next to her appeared to be a burnt spot on it; someone else in the picture, but was blurred out due to whatever burnt the image.

The woman hopefully looked at it, as she spoke to it, hoping for a response, "I found her, Luna. Soon, you'll be free of the Darkness that infected you. And hopefully… we can be a family again."

* * *

**Main Level**

Twilight was looking at the pendant, wondering what the heck made it and her so special to each other. When she didn't look at it anymore, it faintly glowed a little activating on its own. Absentmindedly, she shook her hand… and in that action, caused a few books to fly off the shelf, surprising her a little in the process. Twilight blinked at the sudden action, as she gulped, "Did… did I do that?"

The world that she knew was beginning to change, whether she wanted it to or not. But at that moment, her wonderment turned towards something else. There, to where the books were knocked to, was a strange blue onyx mini statue of what appeared to be a horse with wings and a unicorn's horn, flying past the crescent moon carved with it. Twilight walked towards it, a bit creeped out, but entranced by the beauty it seemed to emit.

She slowly reached for it, enthralled by the dark beauty of the statuette. She gently took it up, making sure not to break it, hoping to see and learn who carved such a fine statue, hoping ot find the name of the artist on it…

But the star pendant she wore began to glow a mixture of violet and ruby. Once Twilight noticed this, the statue began to crack, letting out dark blue and black energies. Twilight yelped as she dropped the statue, it crashing into the ground but not breaking of the fall. Slowly though, as Twilight backed away, the statue started to crack and break, until finally, it erupted into a small explosion.

And out of the statue, came a pillar of blue and black energies that reached past the ceiling, but didn't go noticed by anyone outside the store or beyond it. Twilight was startled to say the least, and more so frightened, as what happened next. Within the pillar, a female body was forming from a shadowed silhouette. The body was naked at first, featureless, until dark blue energy as illuminescent as the night shot and stuck to the head, forming it into hair. And then black and dark blue bands wrapped around the well-proportioned body, taking the form of clothing and headwear, as the figure lowered back down on the floor. Once that happened, the pillar of light died away, revealing who it was that had formed for Twilight to see.

The figure stood before her, revealed to be a Caucasian eighteen year old woman. She had the same color skin as the woman she met earlier, but her hair was dark blue, wavy and short, reaching to her mid-back, a killer body, dark blue eyes like the night, and a face that said she was serious and firm. She wore a blue button-up shirt with a black corset around her waist, pushing her breasts up, almost threatening to burst out of the buttons that were undone, a black mini-skirt with blue trimming, black stockings as well as black high-platform lolicon boots with blue buckles and belts on them, black fingerless gloves, a black duster jacket with a blue belt around the waist of the coat, a blue scarf, and around her neck was a dazzling pendant that looked like a diamond crescent moon, and a sapphire full moon.

The woman drew in breath, as she exhaled it, sighing in pleasure and relief, "Ah, freedom. At last, freedom."

Finally, Twilight couldn't take it anymore, as she screamed out in fright, "GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The woman in Black and Blue smiled, as she cackled evilly, "Ah, music to my ears." But then she turned to face Twilight, giving her a death glare that silenced the little girl, as she demanded, "You! When am I?"

Twilight managed to speak out, as she answered, "Uh, uh… y-y-you're in Ponyville, USA. It's near the Eastern coast of America, near between New York and Maine…"

"I know where I am, you twit," the woman spat out coldy, as her eyes glowed into blue slits, like a reptile. "What I want to know is 'When' I am. The date!"

"AUGUST 23RD 2010!" Twilight screamed, as she huddled near the cashier register.

The woman sighed, calming down, "Thank thee. Thou hast no idea what thy bondage in that moon rock hath been like." But then she went wide eyed, as she spotted the pendant around Twilight's neck, and her attitude changed from calm to anger. And then suddenly, to Twilight's already frightened visage, a pair of ten foot black and blue wings sprouted from her back, as energies of the same color sparked from her hands, "Thou is a Bearer of Harmony. My sister's chosen apprentice." She aimed at Twilight with her right hand, as she hissed out, "Thou shall die before thou have a chance to…"

But suddenly a yellow orb of what could be described by Stephen Hawking as a sphere of plasma energy, shot right at the woman. The ball struck her, as it sent her flying ot the ceiling, pinning her in bands of glowing energies to keep her at bay and stay in place. The woman tried to break free of her bonds but to no avail, as she finally screamed out, "CELESTIA! SHOW YOURSELF, YOU COWARD!"

"I thought I asked you not to touch anything, Twilight," the woman, now known as Celestia had arrived in. Twilight turned around, and saw that her left hand had been extending outward, glowing with the same golden energies, as she walked in with a book and jewel case in hand.

"Oh, this is not very sporting of you, Celestia," the teenage girl replied down to her.

Twilight regained her courage, as she apologized, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to let her out…. Whoever she is…"

"I AM NIGHTMARE MOON, YOU WHELP!" the teenage girl screamed out, as she glared at Twilight with murder in her eyes, "And I WILL HAVE THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY!"

"Silence!" Celestia demanded, but then looked to Twilight, as she calmed. "I'm sorry, Twilight. It's not you, she's been like this for what seems to be since she was sealed in that prison of hers."

Finally, Twilight asked, "What's going on?"

"Well, it's a good news/bad news scenario, Twilight," Celestia replied. "Bad news, in that Nightmare Moon, the most dangerous magic user, has been freed." But then smiled to Twilight, as she handed her the book and the jewels, "The Good News, is that I have found one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony: the only thing that can defeat the darkness that plagues Nightmare Moon."

The young girl blinked at that information, but then looked to the book in confusion. But Celestia replied, "That's the Enchantus. It'll help you prepare for when you and the others will be ready."

Twilight blinked, "The others?"

Suddenly, they heard a crashing sound, as Nightmare Moon had broken through the gold bands with her wings, as she landed on the ground, "I'm sorry, Celestia, but her assignment will be incomplete!"

Suddenly, with her wings, Nightmare Moon charged at Twilight, who dropped the book and jewels. However, Celestia charged at her, with white wings erupting from her back and in the same length, but with golden crescent tops of the outer wings like armor, and flew at Nightmare Moon, tackling her from getting to Twilight, smashing into the bookcase. A huge brawl erupted, as the two fought each other. The two pulled apart, firing dark and light plasma bolts at one another, nearly hitting each other. And Twilight was in the middle of it, as she gulped, "This isn't happening. This is impossible…"

During the fight, however, the urn that Celestia warned about was knocked to the ground, opening it up. Once that happened, a giant vortex gust of wind began to suck up everything into the urn, including what appeared to be a paged report from Twilight's backpack, as it got sucked in. the little dragon statue was sucked in there as well, along with the Enchantus. And soon, Nightmare Moon and Celestia were being sucked in there as well, as Nightmare Moon grabbed her sister, as the two fell to the floor, with Nightmare Moon being sucked in first.

Celestia was close to getting sucked in fully. But Twilight grabbed her by her hand, struggling to help her. "Twilight! You have to let go," Celestia warned her. "You'll be sucked in along with me and Nightmare."

"NO! I'm not letting you get trapped in there," Twilight screamed out.

"Five years will pass, Twilight," she said. Twilight looked to her in fright, but Celestia smiled calmly, as she assured her, "I'll be alright. Knowing you're alright." And was sucked in as well, the lid closing up, as the suction died down.

Freaking out, Twilight grabbed her backpack, and absentmindedly the jewel case as well, and ran out of the store.

* * *

**Outside**

Once she got outside, Twilight stopped outside the steps, but then paled at what she was holding in her hands. She had brought with her the jewel casing with the five other games. Wanting to forget all that had happened; she tossed the gems out to the street, and turned away, never wanting to see them again.

"Twilight!" Ms. Cramtree called out, grabbing Twilight by her shoulder. "Young Lady, where have you been?"

Twilight looked to see not only her teacher, but her homeroom class as well, as well as the boy who gave her the letter. Ms. Cramtree looked to the door, as she asked, "Is this where you've been?" And then walked to the door.

Twilight realized she was going into the store. Fearing what else might go wrong, she ran after her, "Ms. Cramtree, don't go in! There's…!" but Ms. Cramtree brushes her aside, as she opened the door. And much to Twilight's surprise, the store was quiet and cleaned up; exactly how it looked when she first entered.

Twilight pulled back, as Ms. Cramtree looked ot her and asked, "Twilight, what has gotten into you?"

"But there were two women! They both had wings, one of them was trapped in a statue," Twilight rambled out, still feeling like crazy after what she had just witnessed. But then she blinked, "The pendant! It glows, look!" She pulled out the star pendant given to her by Celestia, and stared at it, commanding it to glow, "Glow. Shine out. Levitate." But nothing happened, causing her to frown at this, as she finally screamed out, "DO SOMETHING MAGICAL ALREADY!"

"Twilight, Twilight, relax," Ms. Cramtree said, as she held Twilight by the shoulders, as she reassured her, "It's probably low on batteries. You're an intelligent girl. You know just as much as I do: there's no such thing as magic."

Twilight looked at the store, and noticed to where the Urn was placed… on the urn along with the scary figures, Celestia and Nightmare were there. She walked back, with the teacher tried to reason with her, as Twilight turned around, and saw all the students. Suddenly, they started laughing, claiming that Twilight was crazy, and pointing fingers at her. She felt like she was spinning out of control, as she sped off, with the teacher calling her to come back. Flash watched her run off, not sure of what to do, but he didn't laugh like the others, or did anything to upset her.

But at that moment, a raggedy homeless man, or one that looked homeless, walked past the jewel case containing the elements of harmony… and scooped them up, as he joyfully walked away.

* * *

**Later that Day**

**Sparkle Residence**

The residence that Twilight occupied was an apartment complex, and Twilight's family inhabited the 10th floor. After the incident, the school called up Twilight's parents and told them that hteir daughter had a mental breakdown. She kept rambling about angels that fired bolts of energy, and were sucked up in an urn. Twilight was taken home that day, as she was resting in her bed, out like a light.

But as she slept in her bed, the pendant slowly glowed a little, almost like a beacon. No matter how much she wanted to run, Twilight Sparkle's life would never be the same… and that her destiny would soon come to light to her.

* * *

**Next Chapter: The Return of Friendship pt.2**


	2. The Return of Friendship pt 2

**Equestria Guardians: Friendship is Magic**

* * *

**Chapter 2: The Return of Friendship pt.2**

* * *

**5 Years Later…**

**Sparkle Apartment Residence**

**Twilight's Room**

The room's walls were littered with posters famous scientists; Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, John Oppenheimer, and other scientists, along the walls next to Goldrapp, Buddy Hole, and Justin Timberlake. A figure stirred in her bed under light purple covers, as they pulled them off a little, revealing themselves. It was a fifteen year old girl with a physically fit body, a developing hourglass figure of a finely tune waist, A cup chest, and mid-long violet hair with a familiar pink and ruby streak in her hair, wearing a big light purple sleeveless T-shirt as pajamas. It was none other than Twilight Sparkle, as she grew up to be a slight nerdy teenager, but if looked at carefully, she become inconspicuously beautiful.

The door to her room opened a little, as a figure walked in, slowly making their way to her bed. It leaned on the beam of her bed, until…

"TWILIGHT, WAKE UP!" The figure shouted, as they jumped on the bed, jumping on her, as she gasped in surprise.

She switched the light, on, as it revealed who it was that had tackled on her. It was an eleven year old boy, Caucasian, slim body frame, green eyes, as well as a green hairstyle shaped like a spiky Mohawk. He was dressed in a white button up T-shirt with redwood colored trim cuffs on the sleeves, a pair of redwood colored pants, and brown shoes. His name was Spike Sparkle, the adopted brother of Twilight and Shining Armor Sparkle. And right now, he was waking up his sister.

She groaned, as Twilight slowly got up, as she groaned, "Seriously, Spike? What time is it?"

"It's almost 6:30 AM. Almost time for the new school day," Spike advised her.

Once that kicked in, Twilight was wide awake, as she jumped out, nearly shoving Spike off the bed, as she raced to her closet. Immediately, she stripped down to her underwear, and was speeding to get dressed. Spike covered his face immediately, as he berated her, "Twilight! Couldn't you wait for me to get out of here before you got dressed?!"

Twilight had almost finished, as she was slipping on her shoes, as she simply stated, "Hey, this is a speedy emergency. And besides, it's not like we haven't seen each other naked before. We bathed together, remember?"

"Yeah," Spike said, as it was now safe to look, as he scowled, "But you were like six, I was one year old."

Twilight finished dressing, as she now stood in her school uniform along with Spike. She was wearing a white button up T-shirt with redwood colored trim on her sleeves, a yellow sweater vest, a redwood skirt, purple knee socks that were baggy, and brown slip on shoes. However, unknown to Spike, Twilight wore underneath her shirt the same pendant she had when it was given to her when she was ten. Though she never told anyone about it at all, and had kept it hidden, Spike knew about it of course, but never told anyone about it. And he never pestered her on why she had it. In truth, she wanted to get rid of it to rid herself of the nightmares she had that day, as well as 2,000 hours of therapy and medication she had. But she still kept it, but never spoke about it.

She grabbed her book bag, and then ran for Spike, as she cried out, "Move it, Spike! I don't wanna be late for the first day of high school!"

Spike grabbed his bag, as he was being dragged out along with Twilight, as he groaned, knowing full well of his sister's fixation on perfect education as well as attendance, "You're the only person I know that gets excited on the first day of school…"

* * *

**30 Minutes Later…**

**Canterlot Academy**

The two siblings had taken a trolley express way to get to the school they were currently going to. Once the trolley express had made its stop, the two siblings jumped out, followed by rushing teens and preteens making their way to the school, that was more like a kingdom than a simple school. In fact, the entire school was built nearby the coast… on an island continent. Canterlot Academy: a school city in of itself. Within its massive campus, which stretched all over on an island nestled between the bay of Ponyville, was a multitude of educational facilities. It covered both Kindergarten and College University, and at least 20,000 were enrolled in its dormitories. From looking up at the school, if it was seen atop in a helicopter, the school in on itself was actually a vast island city. It had its own mall, food court, hospital centers, movie theatre complex, shopping malls, and a small island connected by a bridge called Encarta Island. The school was founded nearly 200 years ago by one Victoria Celestine, and that the current headmaster had been taking a leave of absence from time to time. It had everything a student could ask for, including those who were required to live on campus in the dorms. In truth, it was the most advanced school in America.

As they ran to the main building, Twilight was anxiously awaiting the school day's classes. Spike, on the other hand, was beginning to push Twilight in the direction he knew she needed to go. "So, Twilight… plan on making any friends this year in this school?"

Twilight nearly tripped over herself, as she scowled at Spike, "Spike!"

"Cmon, Twilight," Spike encouraged her. "You're smart, diligent, but you gotta stop sticking your nose in a book, which is most of the time." Twilight grumbled at that, but let her little brother continue, "I'm just saying there's more to life than studying."

Twilight frowned at her little brother, as she asked, "What are you? Mom?"

"No," Spike frowned, feeling a little sensitive on that. "I'm just saying like mom and dad have been telling you to do for the past five years: make some friends." But Twilight just groaned at that, as Spike continued to encourage her, "Look on the bright side. Canterlot Academy is said to have the biggest library in Ponyville. What more to you want?"

"Well, call me picky," Twilight sarcastically replied. "But maybe a little brother who doesn't bug me constantly to make friends whenever I go to a new school would be nice."

Spike sighed, "Guess it's true: there's just no pleasin' some people." Once they got inside, they walked through the main hallway together, as they passed some of the students nearby. He then looked to Twilight, as they walked down the pathway to get to the school building. "At least try to make some friends, okay? I don't wanna spend the whole day having to hear how your day went. Even I have a life."

"Spike, first of all: the fate of the world does not rest on me making friends," Twilight pointed out. But then she frowned, as she seemed disappointed, "And second… what's wrong with talking to me most of the time? You never complained about it before."

"It gets kind of annoying after the first five years," Spike stated. "Besides… maybe the students here will have interesting things to talk about." Twilight wasn't sure, but Spike insisted, "C'mon, Twilight. At least try to talk to the first person you bump into." He then ran off to his class, leaving to Twilight and her thoughts.

As she walked towards her locker, she noticed a girl getting ready for her day. She was a Caucasian fifteen year old girl, much like her; she had a nice body, well fit with a B-cup sized chest, blue eyes, and pink orchid hair that was fluffed and bouncy that that reached to her shoulder blades, with two bangs in front of her, with the right dangling a bit. She was dressed in the same uniform that Twilight wore, except she had thigh high stockings that were striped white and pink, and had a pink back pack.

Twilight sighed, taking a deep breath, as she nodded, "Okay. You promised Spike, Mom, Dad, and Shining you'd make friends this year. It's time to break the five-year streak, and start fresh." She walked over to the pink haired beauty, and stopped at her locker. Once the girl closed her locker, she took notice of Twilight, who nervously smiled, as she waved to her, "Uh… hello?"

The pink haired girl blinked, until she gasped out loud, while jumping in the air, "DAAAAAAAAAAAH!" And then zipped right past her.

Twilight blinked in a little bit of confusion on that, as she sarcastically stated while returning to normal, "Well… that was interesting alright."

* * *

**Later That Day**

**Cafeteria**

It had currently been lunchtime, as everyone in the academy was sitting down to a nice seat and eating their lunches. The place was loaded with decorations; obviously something was going on, or some kind of celebration was about to occur. Which it was, considering that there was a banner that said, Celebrating the 100th Eclipse of the Fall Solstice. On one table, a lone student was picking at her food, as Twilight was all by herself. Spike was elsewhere, watching from afar, making sure he didn't intervene at all. He had hoped that keeping his distance from her would actually work, but so far… nothing.

But then something caught his interest, as a student walked past Twilight…. And then stopped, as she turned around.

Twilight was about to eat her fruit salad… until the same pink haired girl popped up, as she smiled, "Hi!"

Twilight jumped out of her seat startled, but then the pink-haired girl grabbed her hand and quickly spoke up, while shaking her hand, "Hey there. You're new around here. I'm Pinkie Pie. How did I know you're new here? I bet that's what you're thinking right? Well, let me tell ya how I know: I know everybody in this school from top to bottom. That's now a party planner like me operates when needed to." But then she stopped, as she smiled at her, "So… what's your name?"

Calming down, Twilight managed to answer, "T-Twilight. Twilight Sparkle."

Pinkie gasped, as she shook her hand yet again, making Twilight shake like crazy, "Nice to meet ya, Twilight Sparkle. Say, were you surprised when I surprised you? Were you, were you?! Huh, Huh, Huh?!"

Twilight pulled away, as she groaned in a deadpan tone, "Yeah. Very surprised."

Pinkie gasped yet again, as stars sparkled in her eyes, as she hugged Twilight, "I know! I have a great super-duper idea! This weekend, we'll throw a party over at either your place or mine. I live in the Cake Pastry Bakery. It's basically on campus, but we're gonna expand by next year close to a pet shop! But i'm losing place here. Anyway, where'd you like the party at? Do you like surprises, music, games, etc.?"

Pulling away, Twilight had no idea how to keep up with this girl, much less make any sense of what was going on in that pink orchid-colored haired girl before her. She looked away, as she mumbled, "Um, well… I'm not exactly the kind of girl who enjoys noise. I like more of nice quiet place types…"

But Pinkie Pie half frowned, half smirked, as she shook her head, "Oh, that's silly. What kind of welcome party would it be if it were quiet? I mean, duh, Booring! You see, I saw you when you first got here, remember? You were all, "Hello," and I was all…" and made the gasping noise and surprised face when they first met. "Remember? You see, I never saw you before, and if I never saw you before, that means you're new. 'Cause I know everyone, and I mean everyone, in Ponyville. And if you're new, it meant you hadn't met anyone yet, and if you haven't met anyone yet, you must not have any friends, And if you don't have any friends, then you must be lonely, and that made me so sad. And I had an idea, and that's why I went.." and made the gasping sound she had made before. "And after a long time to think, I thought 'Gee. I should throw a great big, ginormous, super-duper spectacular welcome party and invite everyone in Canterlot Academy to welcome the New Girl! And once that happens, you'll have lots and lots of friends!"

All at the moment, Twilight slumped back in her chair, as she groaned, 'Sheesh. Doesn't this girl ever stop?'

Suddenly, at that moment, someone sped towards the two, not noticing them at all at tremendous speed, until…

CRASH!

The two girls were in a heap, as the third girl was getting back onto her feet. She was a Caucasian female with an athletic frame, with ruby quartz pink eyes, a confident and smug look on her face, messy bangs in front of her face, and long reaching down to her mid-back, and looked like she had the body of a ten year old. She was the exact height of Twilight and Pinkie, though she lacked a chest at all. She wore the female uniform like the others, except she had a criss-cross belt with a rainbow design on it, and had her vest undone, as well as wore black fingerless gloves. But the most noticeable and eye-catching thing about her was that her hair was multi-colored, like a rainbow.

The girl brushed herself off, as Twilight and Pinkie groggily got up from the tackle, as the rainbow haired girl cried out in triumph, "Yes! Made it to lunch before the bell! I'm awesome!"

Suddenly, a ticked of Twilight ran up to her, as she glared daggers at her, "HEY, WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING! YOU COULD HAVE RUN US OVER!"

But the rainbow-haired girl scoffed her off, as she picked at her teeth, not caring, "Oh, tut tut, little girl."

But then Pinkie walked up, as she pointed out, "Actually, when you look at it from our point of view, you're the little girl. You don't even have a chest."

That part fumed up the rainbow-haired girl, as she turned to the two of them, as her face turned red with either anger or embarrassment, "I'll have you two know… I'm fifteen like you guys!"

Both girls went wide eye with shock, as they both said together, "Wha…?!"

"Hey, besides, I'm the lucky one," the rainbow haired girl pointed out, crossing her arms across her chest. "Besides, boobs are useless. All that excess weight just slows you down."

Then Pinkie teased, "Then why are you so upset about it when we called you a kid?"

The rainbow-haired girl was shouting up a fumed storm on that, unknowingly drawing the attention of a girl sitting by herself. She was a sixteen year old sophomore, Caucasian, with long blonde hair tied at the end, with green eyes and freckles, and a physically fit body that looked like she did a lot of physical labor, but not heavily or medium muscled. She wore the school female uniform, minus the vest, but had on brown cowboy boots, and had a brown cowboy hat resting on the table. She was eating an apple, as she wondered about the arguing girls, but didn't seem to want to get involved.

The girl was about to pummel the two, until a few student council members, notified by wearing black bands around their right arms, shoved her out of the way. A snooty boy called out, "Make way, you peons! Make way for the Student Council President: Rarity."

At that moment, a new girl walked into the room, followed by a couple of students acting like her bodyguards. She was a Caucasian sixteen year old girl, with snow white skin, violet hair that was styled in a curled sweep to her right, allowing it to go down her mid back as well. She was dressed in the same female uniform, but had around her waist a violet sash belt that was just as wavy as her hair.

She seemed to have a happy and cheerful atmosphere, as well as a high-society feel about her. She smiled, as she said to everyone, "Okay, everyone. Lunch time is almost over. So let's have the rest of our school day as fabulous as everything else."

Twilight blinked as she asked no one in particular, "Who the heck is that?"

Pinkie, scooting over, replied, "That, is Rarity. She's the Student's Council President. Sophomore and a real teenage fashionista. She's also one of the most popular girls in Canterlot Academy. Except for Sunset Shimmer, but she's only popular as a freshman, and due to the fact that everybody's freaked out about her."

Then another girl caught Twilight's attention, as they were helping the rainbow haired girl back on her feet. She was a Caucasian girl with almost snow white skin, sky blue eyes, an excellent figure, and had light pink hair that reached down all the way to her back, and was swept to the right with her bangs. She wore the school's female uniform, but had on a light pink scarf around her neck, making her look like she'd shrink her head in it like a shy turtle.

As the girl helped the rainbow haired girl, she shyly replied in a quiet mousy voice, "Are you okay, Rainbow Dash? What were you doing down there on the floor?"

"Getting run over by the snooty kids," she groggily replied. But she shook it off, "C'mon, Fluttershy. Let's get going."

Fluttershy nodded, "Um.. okay…" and then walked off with her.

Twilight took witness of the scene, and thought ot herself, 'Man, that girl's pretty mousy and timid…' she turned around to leave the cafeteria, hoping to avoid them. but fate had another turn for her, as she crashed face first into some guy's chest, and fell down, flat on her butt. She groaned, as she rubbed her sore face, "Ugh! Watch where you're standing…."

"Sorry about that," a familiar voice spoke up. "You okay?"

Twilight looked up… and was stunned to say the least at who she was looking at. He was a young man, about her age, handsome with short spiked blue hair slicked back and blue eyes, slim build, wearing the boy's school uniform, only he had blue and white sneakers, and a leather jacket tied around his waist. He extended his hand to help her up on her feet, as she graciously took his hand, as he helped her back on her feet.

The boy smirked, as he saw she was alright, and apologized, "Sorry about that."

"Nah, it's okay," Twilight brushed it off.

"Still, I'm sorry, miss…" the boy apologized, and asked for a name.

"Twilight," she answered.

The boy went wide eye with surprise, as he asked, "Wait a minute. Twilight? As in Twilight Sparkle?"

Twilight blinked at htat, as she calmly nodded, "Yeah?"

"I knew you five years ago," the boy answered, as he pointed to himself, "It's me: Flash Sentry. Remember? We were in Sunny Acres Elementary School. I was the guy who handed you the note." He then shyly asked, "I was wondering though… do you still have it? And if so, did you ever jot down an answer?"

Twilight couldn't believe this was the same boy that had given her that note five years ago. He was way too cool-looking, and handsome, and cute, and… she blinked at those thoughts, 'What? Why would I think those…' suddenly, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. She went wide eye, as she panicked, "Oh no." And then took off, as she shouted, "No! Nonononono! No! The bell! Tardiness! Perfect record!" And ran off.

Flash blinked in confusion, as did Pinkie Pie, as he commented, "Um, one 'no' would have been fine."

* * *

**After School**

**Later On**

**Abandoned Subway Station**

After school, Spike and Twilight had gone back into town, and stopped at an abandoned subway station. In actuality, it had become Twilight's personal lab and clubhouse; her home away from home, so to speak. It was spacious, and had been renovated for herself. The upper levels had shelves of books she had collected, as well as an entertainment center for Spike, as well as a coffee table and circle couch for the two. Down below, Twilight was adjusting four towers to which were Tesla Coils, while Spike was working on the computer. Though he seemed a bit miffed, as he asked, "No? you said no. are you this dense?"

Twilight turned to face Spike, angered herself, "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"You practically said No to that Flash guy, as well as that Pinkie Pie girl," Spike explained. "Seriously, do you wanna be a hermit and live the rest of your life in this lab? Friendless? Not known? What kind of teenage girl are you?"

Twilight went back to the Tesla coil, as she answered, "The kind that wants to get the Tesla coil repaired for her experiments if she ever wants to go to college. Off Canterlot Academy."

Spike raised an eyebrow, as he asked, "I thought you liked the Academy? That's the reason why we're going there, isn't it?"

Twilight stopped working on the coils, as she looked at her brother, and stated, "All the kids at that school are CRAZY! That Pinkie girl was the nuttiest ever. She wouldn't leave me alone, always skipping after me, and when I did find a hiding spot, she found me there first. I swear the girl's somehow able to break the laws of reality just to find me. When I turn the other way, she appears there like she's super fast. I can't put my finger on it."

Spike blinked at that, as he shrugged, "Ah well." He then turned to an almost love-struck stupor, as he said, "Man, in the cafeteria today… beautiful."

Twilight raised an eyebrow, as she shrugged, "Yeah, I guess the décor was pretty well thought up. The decorations were stunning."

Spike snapped out of it, as he stated, "No, not the décor…" he then sighed in awe, "…her."

Twilight blinked at that, as she asked, "Her? Her who?"

"Rarity," Spike sighed, as hearts appeared in his eyes. "I didn't think it was possible… but it's true: Angels do exist."

But his dream was snapped out of, as Twilight had gotten down off the Tesla coil, and got into his face, snapping him out of it, "Spike. She's like five years older than you."

Spike was looking at her, and then shrugged, "It could happen."

Twilight frowned, as she sighed, going back to her work, "Well, at least things can't get any weirder for today."

* * *

**Elsewhere**

**Flim Flam Emporium**

The Flim Flam Everything under the Sun Emporium was a pawn shop. A sort of easy setup by two twin brothers for those who wanted to get rid of stuff, and then they could sell it for anyone who wanted it. Above it was the apartment building that the owners, Flim and Flam Flimflam, lived in. the two brothers, both Caucasian skinny men wearing barbershop outfits; one had a full head of messy red hair with green eyes, and the other had a red cured mustache with green eyes were currently arguing. And the argument, was with a certain familiar urn that was shaking on the table.

"I'm tellin' ya, Brother, that urn is a defective product," Flim stated.

"And I'm tellin' ya, it was a steal," Flam stated.

"No wonder you got it for five cents if it's shaking like that."

Then suddenly, the urn popped open, as it startled the brothers, causing them to jump back. A plume of black flames shot out of the urn, as it formed a black cloud in front of the two brothers. It then started taking shape and form, solid form: until finally, Nightmare Moon stood there, as she coughed up a cloud.

Patting herself clean, she looked to the two brothers, as she asked, "Was I the first one to exit that urn?" The only response she got was Flim and Flam fainting flat on their backs on the ground. Nightmare Moon simply shrugged, "I'll take that as a yes."

She looked around, and spotted the Urn, grinning. She picked it up, as she walked towards the window, "Our five years are up, Celestia… wherever you are." She opened the window, as she held it out over the edge, "Farewell, Celestia. Wherever you are. I'll be sure to tell the little girl you said hi."

And then dropped the urn, just as a blue and white light shot out of it, as it smashed onto the ground at high speed. Unknown to her, the light flew off somewhere, possibly in search of Twilight.

* * *

**One Hour Later**

**Sparkle Apartment**

After the two had finished in their little secret hideout, they had made it back to their home, quick as bunnies. They entered the house, and saw it vacant. The reason or that was because their parents had gone out of town on business trips. That, and they were hoping to find Shining Armor stationed elsewhere to tell him that his two siblings got accepted into Canterlot Academy. After a quick change, Twilight was about to make dinner, with Spike's help. The two had changed out of their uniforms, as they were now in casual wear. Twilight was wearing a light purple t-shirt with a violet mini-skirt ending above her knees, with pink violet socks that went up to her knees, and violet shoes. Spike was wearing green shorts that went over his knees, a white and purple hoodie with a green hoodie, and a green T-shirt underneath.

Twilight opened the fridge to grab the milk, as she opened the carton, to take a sniff to see it was still good. She cringed, as she shuddered, "Uggh! The milk's gone bad."

"Well, I guess I'm gonna have to get a new carton then," Spike groaned, as he hopped off the table… but then stopped as he went wide eye at an unfamiliar sight beore him.

Twilight held the milk and closed the door to throw away the carton… when she went wide eye as she saw on her fridge, a report on Napoleon Bonaparte… a report she had written five years ago, and had went missing. She blinked at that, wondering how the heck it had gotten there, "What the…? I thought I lost this five years ago." She felt a tugging on her skirt, as Spike was trying to talk, and looked to him, "Oh, Spike. What have we talked about…" And then turned to where he was looking, and then paled, "… staring?"

There, sitting at the dining table, with her legs crossed, and sipping a cup of tea… was Nightmare Moon. She took another sip, as she politely waved, "Hello again." Twilight screamed out in surprise, as Nightmare sighed, "I see after five years, you still scream in my presence. Either a lack of a spine, or I just have that effect on people." She then pointed to the fridge, as she explained, "You know, I was trapped in that urn for five long years, and the only reading material I had was your so-called report on Napoleon Bonaparte. Though to be honest, I think A- might have been a bit unfair. Though it could have been generous; I mean, your presentation was sloppy, the facts referenced from an encyclopedia. It was done rather poorly. Not to mention the handwriting was atrocious."

Finally snapping out of her fear, after her schoolwork had been insulted, Twilight shot back, "I was ten years old!"

"Oh, that's no excuse," Nightmare Moon shot out, as she stood up. She then went back to business, as she slowly walked over to them, "Now that I've got that out of my system. On to business. Where are the Elements of Harmony?"

Twilight blinked, as she asked, "The Elements of what?"

"THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY!" Nightmare Moon screamed out, causing both kids to flinch at that. "The other five gems in the case! The gems Celestia gave to you for safe keeping; the sixth gem you're still wearing! As a pendant!"

Twilight was freaking out at that moment; something she believed to be nothing more than a hallucination that was brought on by school stress, was coming back now. Spike, on the other hand, knew this was long to be true, as he looked to his sister, "Twilight. You might wanna give these Elements back to her. Now."

Twilight frantically answered, "I don't know where they are! I threw them out in the street; I was freaking out! I had to do something!"

Nightmare Moon's right hand glowed blue and black, as the drawers of the kitchen opened up. There, floating out of them, all the knives popped out, as they floated behind her, pointed directly at the two siblings, as Nightmare Moon threatened at the two, "If you won't tell me truthfully… I will cut the truth out of your little brother."

Twilight was scared beyond recognition ideas… until Spike saw the milk carton in Twilight's hand. Quickly, he grabbed the carton and threw it at Nightmare Moon's face, as the contents spewed over her. She cringed and gagged at the smell, stumbling all over the place, as he grabbed Twilight's hand, "TWILIGHT, RUN!"

Snapping out of it, Twilight sped after, pulling Spike along with her, as Nightmare recovered, and sighed, "Typical."

* * *

**Hotel Rooftops**

The kids had made their way, hoping to find someone for help. But for some odd reason, everyone seemed to fall asleep. It was odd to say the least, as even the bellboys and maids were asleep in place. It was like someone pumped the whole building with sleeping gas, and the only ones who weren't affected by it were the siblings. They tried to use the elevators, but somehow they were frozen in place. It was obvious that whatever this Nightmare Moon had done, she wanted to make sure the two siblings would stay in the building. And the only choice they ahd to take was to go up the roof, and hope to find a fire escape down below, and find help.

As they got up the roof, they stopped for breath, as Spike asked, "Twilight? Who the heck was that?"

"I don't know, I don't know," Twilight replied. "She's supposed to be a hallucination I had when I was a kid. And now she's up and about again! This doesn't make sense!"

"Well, she's real, and she's not…"

The rooftop way exploded, causing the two to take notice of the figure walking out of it. Nightmare Moon's hands were glowing brightly, as she snapped, "I will not ask again, Twilight Sparkle. Where are the Elements of Harmony?!" the two siblings weren't answering, as they were too terrified, as Nightmare Moon was getting more fed up, as she shouted, "Then meet with Celestia… INTO OBLIVION!"

But suddenly, a large silhouette appeared, almost shadowing all three of them, as well as draw Nightmare Moon's attention. "What…?"

WHAM!

A giant wing slammed into Nightmare Moon, sending her flying until she skidded at the end of the roof, knocking the wind out of her. Suddenly, the two siblings saw a huge creature landing on the roof before them. a thirty foot blue and white wyvern dragon, with diamond-like scales swept back to his head, and two red piercing eyes, as he roared out, and then spewed a blast of lightning that struck at the recovering Nightmare Moon. But it didn't knock her off the roof; the bolts somehow slowed her down, looking like someone had hit the slow-motion button on her.

The dragon looked to the two, as he spoke to them, "Twilight. Where are the Elements of Harmony?"

Fearing that this dragon was after her as well, she shielded Spike, as she shouted out, "Leave us alone!"

He shook his head, as he looked to see Nightmare was speeding up for an attack. He looked to the two, as he said, "Hop on!"

"What?" Spike asked.

"Are you crazy?!" Twilight shouted.

"You two want to live? Hop on," the dragon called out.

Spike raced up on the dragon's wing, and onto his back, as Twilight pointed out. "I'm afraid of heights. And flying!"

"Well, you're gonna have something more to be afraid of," the dragon pointed out. ""Nightmare Moon. Now hop on!

Twilight, not wanting to argue about that, raced to the dragon, as he used his wing to quickly hoist her on his back. He then dove down off the building as the spell was wearing off of Nightmare Moon, as she regained normal time. Twilight and Spike were screaming as they nosedived off the building, and then at the last second, the dragon pulled up, taking off fast into the air before anyone could see.

Nightmare Moon stopped at the ledge, as she saw the retreating dragon, and fumed, "CURSES!"

* * *

**Trinity Tower**

The Trinity Tower was much like the Tower of Tokyo, built to act as a receiver. The dragon, using the clouds and fog approaching the building, made his way to it, as he landed gracefully onto the building. But just as Twilight was trying to slowly process this, while silently freaking out, "This doesn't make sense. Five years ago, you were just a little paperweight on a display case…"

"And back in 1928, Celestia gave me life to help out with her travels," the Dragon casually responded. "Though I'm not the only magical item in this city or anywhere else. Any place in the world is full of magic. You just need to know where to find it."

As they landed on a flat surface on the tower, a frantic Twilight ran for the railing, as she was about to hurl, "Ugh… I taste sour in my mouth.."

But Spike hopped off, pretty excited, as he laughed, "Whooohooo! That was amazing!" He then looked to the dragon, as he smirked, "Thanks for savin' our butts back there. I'm Spike"

The dragon nodded, "Salutations. I'm Slash."

"NO! NONONONONONONOONONONONO! This isn't happening! You, that woman, and the woman who gave me that pendant five years ago, aren't real!"

The dragon looked down at Spike, as he asked, "Is she always this cynical?"

"Kind of," Spike spoke out, rather calm at seeing a 30-foot dragon before him. "You should see her when she's trying to prove that Santa Claus isn't real."

"But this doesn't make sense," Twilight spat out. "How did she find us? She was sealed up in that urn for five years."

"She used the papers to track you down to where you wrote the paper," Slash explained. "She used a tracking spell on it to find your current home. But that's pretty much all she can find with using it." But then he looked to Twilight, as he interrogated, "And what about you? You should have been able to fight against her. You had the Sixth Element for five years; you must have practiced something along the lines of magic."

However, Twilight still ranted out, "I mean, I have been going under 2,000 hours of therapy, over the past five years to the date! Do you know what my life has been like for the past five years? DO YOU?!"

"Well, in case you didn't remember the past events: Celestia and I were stuck in an urn along with Nightmare Moon for five years. So while Celestia's absent, feel free to help fill in the blanks."

"Well while you've been stuck in a literal urn, I've been stuck in a figurative urn of ridicule," Twilight spat out, still angered, scared, and frustrated. She then paced around, explaining the last five years of her life, "Ever since that day I told them what I saw in the Canterlot Cabana, I was put through therapy for 2,000, for five years. FIVE YEARS! Until I finally cracked down, and told them that I agreed with everything they said, agreed to take the medication, which I have to do and every time I ingest them, I get nauseous and dizzy that it makes it hard for me to focus on my studies. And even more so, we had to switch schools because of all the constant ridicule and teasing I got! Did you know that in some parts of the tri-state area they still refer to having a nervous breakdown as "pulling a Twilight Sparkle"? Did you _know_ that?!"

A moment of silence past all three of them on the Trail Tower, until the dragon spoke up. "I'm sorry to hear that for you, Twilight. I really am. And now that I've listened, it's your turn."

Twilight nodded, still hyperventilating, until she finally calmed down a bit, but then stated, rather calmly, "I need to lie down for a while." And then finally fainted on the rooftop of the tower, leaving the two look at her form in confusion.

The two looked at her fainted form, and then to each other, as Spike reassured the dragon, Slash, "She'll be alright. It'll take her a while to get up though."

Slash huffed, as he looked out, "We can't stay here forever. Nightmare Moon'll find us. We need to find a place she doesn't already know about." He looked to Spike and asked, "you have any ideas?"

Spike thought about it for a moment… and then smirked, "I think I might know a place."

* * *

**Next Chapter: The Return of Friendship pt.3**

* * *

**In the future, the girls, once given their elements will have a specific pair of elements to use. Here's the following in order.**

**Twilight: Magic (obviously)**

**Pinkie: Water and Ice**

**Rarity: Earth (mostly in the form of gems and cyrstals) and Magic (though not as powerful as Twi's)**

**Fluttershy: Wind and Nature (making her the perfect healer)**

**Rainbow Dash: Electricty and Magnetism**

**Applejack: Extreme Force and Fire**


	3. The Return of Friendship pt 3

**Equestria Guardians: Friendship is Magic**

* * *

**Chapter 3: The Return of Friendship pt. 3**

* * *

She felt like she had been sleeping for hours, passed out hard on a concrete floor. But now, she felt a soft bed underneath her, as she dared to open her eyes to bear witness ot her ceiling once again. However, as she slowly opened them, she saw it was a different roof, but one that she was familiar with. It was a makeshift room from one of the abandoned subway cars she had converted into a spare bedroom for herself and Spike, should she work longer than ever on the Tesla coils. She tried to figure out how she had gotten there, as most of her memory was a bit of a blur.

However, a friendly face popped up, as her little brother, Spike had come in with a glass of water. As he saw his sister slowly get up, he ran over to her, as he placed the glass down, and looked to her and asked, "Twi. You okay? You were out for about two hours now."

Twilight groaned, as she rubbed her face to wipe away any sleepiness left in her, and groaned, "Oh Spike. I had the most horrible and messed up dream."

Spike blinked, as something crawled up his back, "A dream? Like what?"

"Well…" she groaned out. "I was dreaming that we were attacked by a woman in black and blue. She put the whole building asleep using magic, trapping us up on the roof." She then turned to Spike as she chuckled at the idea, "And there was this dragon that popped up, and…" but then she went wide eye, as she saw something pop up on her brother's shoulder.

It was a little blue and white dragon; a mini and more baby-looking version of the dragon on her dream. Slash, oblivious to what she was going through, waved to Twilight, "Hello."

Twilight went wide eye, as she screamed aloud, "DAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" and got up, as she was about to run.

Until Slash called out, "HALT!" Twilight suddenly stopped, frozen in place, as he finished, "You cannot move."

Twilight gulped as she shuddered, "You know something… you're right."

Spike blinked, as he was amazed by this, "Holey Quachamolie! Was that a spell?"

"No, just a simple voice command and hoped she'd listen," Slash responded, causing Spike to slump over in disappointment.

Slash hopped off Spike's back, and using his little wings, flew over to Twilight in the face, as he looked to her eye to eye. Finally breaking down, Twilight pleaded with the now real and small dragon, "Please just leave me along. The last time I hung around someone using magic, it ruined my life."

Slash went wide eye at that, and chuckled, hiding his pent up anger at the girl, "Oh! We ruined your life?" He then chuckled, and then roared out, glaring at Twilight. "CELESTIA AND I WERE STUCK IN AN URN WITH ONE OF THE MOST VILE AND CRULE EVILS OF OUR WORLD FOR FIVE! LONG! YEARS! And somewhere alogn the five years, Celestia disappears in the urn, not even showing up when it opened up!" He then calmed down, as he continued to glare at Twilight, as he finished, "You could have done something; you could have learned something in the last five years about magic, but instead you swept it all under the rug, knowing full well that after five years, the urn would open and Nightmare Moon would come after the Elements of Harmony. Something of which you have, by the way."

Twilight finally calmed down, as she was now the one silently angry, as she explained, "I was ten years old; I was a little girl. I witness for the first time in my life real magic. Then this woman, Celestia, comes around and tells me I was destined for something great. And then this woman named Nightmare Moon tries to kill me for something I don't even know of… and then they get sucked in an urn, along with any evidence that it ever happened. I was afraid… and nobody believed me, thinking it was some kind of glucose imbalance brought on with growing up in a public school. My parents thought it was mentally breaking down, and hired experts to try and fix me, making me believe everything I saw that day… wasn't real." The little dragon before her had calmed down, as he looked at her with a calmed expression, as Twilight stood relaxed, as she looked saddened on how she had felt, and apologized, "I'm sorry. Nobody believed me; I was all alone."

"So was I… for five long years in darkness, Twilight," Slash said, sounding calmer and more sympathetic for the girl. He then shook his scales a little, as he flew into the lab nearby, with the two siblings followed. "Well, right now, we can focus on your training. Nightmare Moon doesn't know of a way to find this place. Yet. But we'll have enough time to find the other five, get you trained up to prepare for her…"

As they were walking in, Twilight had to ask, "Wait. Wait. Wait a minute. You, Celestia, and Nightmare Moon mentioned these Elements of Harmony. And I know I'm wearing the one. But… what are they?"

Slash stopped in his flight, and turned around to see them both, as he was bug-eyed, as he nearly face vaulted down on the floor. "What? How could you not know of the…" he asked, sounding freaked. But then came back to the present, as he shook his head, "Oh yeah. The Enchantus got sucked in with us that day." He took a deep breath as he then belched out a yellow flame… and magically a small book landed on the table before them.

Spike went wide eye, as he ran over to it, amazed of the materialization of the book, "Whoa. You can do that?"

"Yeah, but it messes with my digestion. So I get gas," Slash confessed.

Twilight walked over to the book, and then arched an eyebrow, as she stated, "I thought something like this would be bigger."

Slash waved a claw up, as he crawled over ot it, "Like me, it's in travel size."

Twilight blinked, as she pointed, "And that's why you look like a plush toy?"

"Yeah. If I was back to my real size, you'd probably either faint or die of fright," Slash rpelied, as he suddnely folded out the book… making it bigger. He then explained, as he began to make the book bigger, much to the siblings' surprised faces, "Magic, is actually the science of the world, as Celestia pointed out. For Unicorns, it's how they're able to do things more accurately."

Twilight blinked, "Unicorns?"

"I'll explain that later," Slash finished, as the book was now big enough to be an illustration book, and then lifted it up, adding more bulk to it than width and length. Then he opened the book, as eh explained, "The Enchantus holds more than just spells and knowledge to pass down to the next generation. It also records history for future generations to learn. See?" He then turned to a page, showing what had happened earlier, with illustrations of him, Spike, Twilight, as well as Nightmare Moon. "Now, you're part of the history."

Twilight blinked, as she saw her illustration: a frightened visage of what she looked like seeing Nightmare Moon and Slash after five years. Twilight frowned, "Ugh. Could you maybe change that picture?"

"One must always show the truth in history. You can't fudge it up," Slash pointed out.

Then Spike spoke up, "So what's going on with all this? I mean, what does all of this has to do with my sister, this Nightmare Moon, or these Elements of Harmony? What's the story with all this?"

Slash sighed, taking a deep breath, as he knew the kids wouldn't be able to handle the truth. "I was hoping Celestia would be here in my stead to tell you this. She could make it sound better than I could. But since I'm the only choice, I'll tell you the best way I can," Slash said, as he began to explain. "First and foremost: this world is not the only realm of existence. There are a myriad of dimensions of the same world, but with _many_ differences within them."

Twilight lit up, as she asked, "You mean String Theory?"

Slash nodded, "Yeah, something like that. But one of these realms is a world called Equestria. Where I... as well as Celestia and Nightmare Moon once hailed from. This realm was inhabited by a race of sentient ponies of three different races: Earth, Pegasus, and Unicorns. The rulers of this realm were Alicorns: a race that is both Earth, Pegasus, and Unicorn all in one, and possess extraordinary and limitless magic. Celestia, was the Princess who ruled over Equestria, and protected it. Together with another like her named Luna. Together, they used the Elements of Harmony to protect and govern the very lands and their people, bringing light and peace to the peaceful kingdom."

Twilight was taking this all in, as she finally asked, "And the Elements themselves?"

"They are by far what Starswirl the Bearded, Celestia and Luna's mentor, could call the oldest magic known to Equestria," Slash answered. "They're six supernatural artifacts that represent the six subjective aspects of true harmony: Laughter, Honesty, Generosity, Kindness, and Loyalty. From what Celestia told me, they are arguably the most powerful force in Equestria, and now… in Earth. Though the extent of their power has been largely unspecified. Even I don't know what their limits are."

But then Twilight blinked, as she asked, "Wait. You said there are six elements, but you only mentioned five."

"The sixth element is a mystery. Only Celestia knew the answer to it," Slash replied, but shrugged, "Though honestly she didn't tell me. She merely said, 'Twilight will discover it when the answer comes to her'."

Twilight blinked, as she reached in her shirt collar, and pulled out the element around her neck, as she looked at it, "You mean… I have the 6th Element?"

Slash nodded, "Yep. The Sixth Element is the most important; it powers the other five. Celestia also told me to tell you to find the other five bearers; the ones who possess the corresponding trait to their element."

Twilight went wide with it, as she replied, "So that's why they're five others: six gems, six bearers."

"Six Guardians," Spike finished. But then asked, "But wait. Why are you guys in this world?"

Slash finished his explanation, "Well, centuries ago, something happened that had to bring Celestia and her friend here. A great calamity, so to speak. Therefore, using the Elements, she had her people be reborn into this realm as humans, as well as herself and the other Alicorn. Knowing that this calamity would happen again, she began to seek out the ones who would be able to bear the Elements of Harmony. And five years ago… she found you. You and the other five are destined to protect the new kingdom of Equestria here on Earth."

Twilight went wide eye on that subject, as he gulped, "Wha.. me?!"

But Spike was as cheerful as ever, "Whoa. You mean my sister's like a superhero?"

"Yeah," Slash answered. But then he noticed Twilight silently freaking out face, as he reassured her, "But don't worry, you won't be alone. Remember: there are five others who will fight alongside you on this. And right now, we both have two tasks. My task is to teach you in the ways of magic, in place of Celestia to prepare you for what's to come. Your task: find the other five who are bearers to the other five Elements."

But Twilight then asked, "But are you sure she or the Element chose the right person for this?"

Slash sighed, as he dragged his palm on his face, as he spoke up, "I'm sure the Element and Celestia chose the right girl for the job. You're like a… well… you're like a fountain."

Twilight raised an eyebrow, as she asked, "I'm like a fountain?"

"YES, YOU'RE A FOUNTAIN!" Slash yelled in frustration. He then calmed down, as he explained, "Don't you see, Twilight? There's a lot more to you than there is to you."

Twilight blinked at that, as she gulped, realizing she was going to have to tell the little dragon about this. She sweat dropped, as she began, "Well, you see.. There's something you need to know."

"Yeah?" Slash asked.

"I had the Elements five years ago when I rushed out of the shop."

"Yeah?"

"I panicked looking around for help…"

"Yeah, yeah?"

And then she nervously smiled, as she rubbed the back of her head, "And then I threw them out in the street, and never saw where they were again."

"Oh, you tossed them out in the street," Slash asked, sounding rather oblivious of what he had just heard. He then chuckled, followed by Twilight, while Spike blinked at the situation. It was a good long fifteen seconds, until the truth hit Slash like a sledgehammer, as he sweat dropped.

And then finally, he shouted, roaring all over the place, as it shook, "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"

* * *

**The Next Day**

**Canterlot Academy**

Twilight and Spike, back in uniform, were walking along the main sidewalk leading to the main building. Slash was tucked away in Twilight's backpack. He had mentioned to them that he would be coming iwht htem wherever they were unitl he felt he was no longer needed. A babysitter, to which Spike had joked out, but Slash wasn't laughing. He was still mad at what Twilight had told him last night. Twilight spoke up again, as she asked to her bag, "C'mon, Slash. You have to talk."

"You do realize you threw the most sacred artifacts of Equestria in the street. And now, it's probably in a pawn shop somewhere collecting dust."

Twilight groaned, as she apologized again, "I'm sorry. But don't worry, after school, we'll find them."

"Spike and I will find them," Slash corrected. "You have a much important mission to do."

"Find the five bearers; I got it," Twilight spoke up.

"And in order to do that you have to… " Slash spoke up, sounding like he was making it unbearable, as he finished, "… Make some friends." Twilight groaned, which caught Slash's attention, as he asked, "You do have friends, right? Oh yeah, the whole ruined your life five years ago thing, right?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Twilight slumped over.

Slash then decided to lighten the subject, as he asked, "So… did you meet anyone interesting? You must have talked to someone other than Spike here."

Twilight thought about it for a moment, and then nodded, "Well, there was this girl…"

"Oh! Finally, we're making progress," Slash gasped. "And? Give me the details."

"Well, her name's Pinkie Pie," Twilight began. "But she was constantly talking; she wouldn't stop, like she was going a mile a minute, and she was really weird. It was like she was on a 24/7/365 sugar rush." She huffed, as her shoulder slouched, "She wouldn't leave me alone; I had to try and ditch her just to get some time to hear myself think…"

"Aaaand here's where you see the mistake," Slash interrupted. "Twilight, Friendship 101: you should never reject someone who wants to be your friend. Especially if they want to make you happy and smile."

Twilight felt a wave of shame over her actions yesterday. She looked away, and quietly nodded, "I… I'll try…"

"Oh, also…" Slash said, as he hopped out of her backpack, and then onto Spike's back, zipping in quickly into his backpack. "If you run into trouble and need to use magic, just try to keep it subtle," Slash advised. "Human civilians mustn't know magic exists. At least not yet. That would be complicated."

"Says the talking dragon," Twilight shot back.

"Yeah, I'll fix that when we see each other next time," Slash replied.

Spike then ran off to class, as he called out, "Catch ya later." And the two were off.

Once she was alone and walking to class, as she thought to herself, 'Magic? I barely learned anything last night. And can I even use magic?' She then remembered that Slash had told her that in her previous life, she was Twilight Sparkle, a unicorn of potential talent and skill. She seemed a bit unsure of herself, 'But that was my old life. Can I even live up to that legend?'

But just as she was about to head to the front door, she paled as she saw a familiar face. Pinkie Pie was standing at the front door, looking around like a lookout aboard a ship. Her eyes were sharp and focused, as she looked around calmly, scanning around the place. Twilight quickly shrunk behind a bush, before Pinkie looked over. She thought she saw someone over there, and shrugged.

Twilight sighed, 'Man, I know I promised Slash I would talk to someone, particularly her. But…' she sighed heavily, as she slouched her shoulders, '… but it was so tiring yesterday dodging her. I just need to avoid her a little to get ready for her.' She then crawled over marine style to avoid Pinkie's sharp eye, 'It's just too early to get tired before school's over.'

The pink-haired girl sighed, not noticing Twilight was passing behind her, as Pinkie Pie shook her head, "Hmmmm. It's getting late. I wonder where Twilight is; she should be coming to school early."

Twilight paled, as she paled at that realization, 'I knew it. She's looking for me. I'm not ready to talk to her yet.' She then bolted for it, as she ran to avoid Pinkie's eyes.

* * *

**Inside**

Twilight was speeding like crazy, running and dodging the other students around her. She looked around to see if Pinkie was following her, but didn't notice her front, until…

CRASH!

Twilight fell flat on her butt, as she groaned, "Ugh. Sorry about that." But then noticed who she had bumped into. It was the same blonde girl from far of her cafeteria table. She had only seen her once in a quick glance, but never talked to her. The blonde girl reached down and helped her up, as Twilight thanked her, "Uh, thanks…"

"Don't mention it."

"Well, I…"

"Ever," the blonde southern girl finished, as she started to walk away.

But Twilight decided to try and introduce herself, taking Slash's advice, as she smiled, "Hi, I'm Twilight Sparkle, and…"

"Don't' know, don't care," the girl responded, and walked away, tipping her hat to hide her face.

Twilight slouched in defeat, as she sighed, grumbling, "What is that girl's problem?"

"Her name's Applejack; her family owns and runs a farm outside of Ponyville," Pinkie Pie smirked behind Twilight. "Some say her family's the founding family of Ponyville. She just got here a month ago, but nobody knows why she's always so… private and secretive to herself."

Suddenly, Twilight jumped, as she got spooked by the surprise, as she cried out, "GAH! Pinkie! Wh-Where did you come from?"

Pinkie Pie giggled in delight, "Oh silly question! I was standing in the entry, and you didn't even see me! Hehehehe…"

Twilight sweat dropped, as she chuckled nervously, "Ehehehe… yeah…"

Pinkie then lit up, as she grabbed Twilight by the shoulders, "Oh! Oooh! I just remembered something. Something I wanted to tell you as soon as I went home and rummaged through all my photos. It was the biggest, brightest, unbelieve-est thing since… since… the invention of peanut butter and chocolate mixed together!"

Twilight arched an eyebrow, as she asked, "Which is what?"

"You and I knew each other five years ago… " Pinkie Pie smiled. "WE WERE IN THE SAME CLASS TOGETHER!"

Twilight blinked, "Wha…? I don't remember meeting you back then. And I think I'd know someone like you back in my old class."

Pinkie Pie rummaged through her shirt, until she pulled out a photo, and then showed it to her, "Here." Twilight looked and saw it was a class roster picture of her old class. She saw herself and Flash Sentry in the pic, far away from one another.

She looked through the picture, and then shrugged, "Sorry. I don't see you."

Then Pinkie pointed to a corner, "Right here." Pinkie Pie pointed to a picture of a girl with straight and lifeless hair, hiding her left eye, as she seemed rather gloomy than the Pinkie Pie Twilight had witnessed, "That's me, ten years old."

Twilight blinked, not sure if what she saw was the truth, as she seemed a little shocked, 'What? So we were in the same class together. But if that's true… then maybe others that were there are also here. Maybe it wasn't such a coincidence that me and Pinkie met.'

* * *

**Later On**

**After School**

**Rooftop**

After class, Spike had run up to the rooftop, as Slash had an idea as to how to locate the other Elements. Once they were up top, and saw that they were alone, Spike unzipped his backpack. Once that happened, Slash flew out, as he gasped for air, "Man, you have got to clean that thing out. It smelled like moldy cheese sticks and sweaty gym socks." He then shuddered himself, as he asked, "And what was that other smell? It was sulfuric!"

Spike shrugged, as he replied, "Chicken salad with deviled eggs." Slash gagged, as Spike took a whiff, and shuttered himself, "Man, you were right: it does smell."

Slash flew over to the ledge, as he flicked his finger digits, concentrating hard. When Spike saw what he was doing, he asked, "Eh, what are you doing?"

Suddenly, a storm cloud appeared somewhere deep in the city of Ponyville. When Spike saw it, Slash mentioned, "It's my Elements of Harmony Displacement Locator Spell. Celestia taught it to me, should something like this happen."

Spike blinked, "And the storm cloud? That's the Locator Spell?"

"Atmospheric pressure builds up forming to where the Elements are," Slash replied, as he looked to where the cloud was located. "And it seems like they're located somewhere in downtown." He then suddenly transformed into his normal larger form, as he looked to Spike, "And if we can find it, so can Nightmare Moon."

* * *

**Elsewhere**

**Canterlot Cabana**

As speak of the devil would have been accurate, Nightmare Moon was looking for the Elements of Harmony at the moment. Last night she had recovered her bearings for such a long time of imprisonment, and had taken a little longer to recover her magic. She had given up the search for the Bearer of the Sixth Element: Celestia's prized apprentice. For the moment, she was looking for the Elements. She walked to the shop of Celestia, which was closed down due to the owner mysteriously taking absent. She walked over to the steps, stopping in the middle of the street.

She closed her eyes, as voices passed within her ears. Voices of the past

_No! Don't go in there!_

_But there was two women in there… angels… fighting_

_Twilight… there is no such thing as magic…_

As she listened to the voices, shadows of the past began to move and come to life around her. It was almost as if a holographic playback of what happened five years ago in the streets. The teacher telling Twilight that it was all in her mind, the children laughing at her, and her running away. But as this happened, what Twilight said to her was playing in her mind.

_I don't know! I panicked and threw them in the street!_

"But where?" Nightmare Moon questioned.

She then pushed the shadows to go farther, as it then revealed Twilight throwing the Elements into a corner of the street. There, the old man found them, and scooped them up, as he walked away…

HONK! HONK!

The honking of a horn stopped Nightmare Moon's concentration, as she turned to see an expensive gas guzzling car before her. Its driver, a well-fit and ill-tempered man shouted to her, "HEY, YOU DUMB BROAD! MOVE YOUR TIGHT ASS OUT OF THERE!"

Nightmare Moon glared at the man, "Are you addressing me, Sir?"

"SHUT UP!" He shouted, not caring of her excuse. He just wanted her out of his way, as he shouted and spat out, "I don't care if you're suicidal, you dumb Goth reject; I just want you out of the way, before I decide to run you over anyway. SO MOVE YOUR ISSUES OFF THE ROA…"

But before he could finish that sentence, Nightmare Moon threw her hand out, and it glowed black and blue. Suddenly, the vehicle and his driver disappeared. Elsewhere, on a garbage freighter, the car appeared above a trash pile, and fell down, taking it and the driver down screaming as it smooshed into the garbage, leaving the driver freaking out on what had happened. Back near the Cabana, Nightmare powered down, as she got rid of that annoyance.

"Now where was I?" she asked herself, trying to remember what she had learned. She then clicked, as she smirked, "Downtown."

* * *

**Back at Canterlot Academy**

As school was over, Pinkie and Twilight were walking off campus along with each other. They had met up earlier, and were walking down to where Twilight and her brother were… currently… staying. Along the way, Pinkie was snacking on a few lollipops, a can of soda, and another lollipop. Twilight had observed her eating that much, and not an ounce of fat was seen. She must have ahd a high metabolism if she remained that fit.

Pinkie Pie noticed Twilight looking at her, and asked, "You want one? I got more."

Twilight immediately shook off the offer, "Ah no thanks." She then looked to the side, as she sweat dropped, 'Now I think I know where she gets all the energy.'

After a moment of silence, which was a first to Twilight since Pinkie wouldn't stop talking, the pink-haired hyperactive girl spoke again, "Hey, Twilight… do I bother you?"

Twilight was drawn to that question, as she asked, "Wha… what makes you say that?"

She scratched the back of her head and smiled sadly, as Pinkie replied, "For as long as I can remember, others don't like to be around me much. They say it's because of my personality."

Twilight blinked in surprise at that, "Really? I would have thought someone as energetic as you would have had lots of friends by now" but sympathetically asked, "But if you know they don't like your personality… then why don't you change it?"

Pinkie Pie smiled, as she answered, "Well… it's because it's my nature. I want to share happiness with everybody I know. Especially my friends."

In that moment, Twilight remembered the words that Slash had given her.

_You should never reject someone who wants to be your friend. Especially if they want to make you happy and smile._

"Pinkie Pie… you don't bother me," Twiight replied, as she explained, "The truth is… I've never been very sociable. It's just hard for me to be around others. So don't start believing it's your fault."

Pinkie was amazed by Twilight's answer, as she smiled again, cheerful and happy, "Thanks Twilight." But then she lit up, as she asked, "Hey, Twilight? Can I sleep over at your place tonight? There's something super important that I really need yoru help with."

Twilight blinked, and then though about it, 'Tonight, I was going to go with Spike and Slash to look for the other Elements.' But then she thought about it, 'But knowing Slash, he'd prefer it if I met other people. This might be a good opportunity to talk with Pinkie.' She turned to Pinkie Pie, and nodded, "Yeah, okay."

Pinkie's smile grew as wide as possible, as she grabbed Twilight into a warm hug, "Yeah! I knew you'd like it!"

Twilight sighed, as she thought, 'Yeah, I figured this would happen.'

* * *

**Next Chapter: The Search is On; Tons of Laughter and Fun**


	4. Tons of Laughter and Fun

**Equestria Guardians: Friendship is Magic**

* * *

**Chapter 4: The Search is On; Tons of Laughter and Fun**

* * *

**Elsewhere**

**Downtown**

The streets were busy with hustle and bustle, as it was nearly the weekend and families and people were excited for the weekend off. Needless to say, it was a difficult path for Spike and Slash, as the boy was making it on foot. Like Slash had said earlier, they had to keep everything they did subtle, and having a 30-foot blue and white wyvern dragon flying or walking around downtown was beyond subtly. Once they were close, it was then that Slash had spotted the source to where the storm cloud was gathered. The two stopped and saw an antique store of the same build as the Canterlot Cabana, only this one was named the Dragon's Tooth.

Spike arched an eyebrow, as he asked, "The Dragon's Tooth? Sounds like a dentist office."

"Either way, Spike, it's our best chance to find the Elements of Harmony," Slash advised.

The two walked in, stepping inside, as the door closed behind them. the hallway leading to the main storeroom was darkened, say for a small light at the end of the hallway. Once they walked in, they were greeted with a shop and shelves full of dragon memorabilia, as well as antiquities and oddities. It was definitely like the Canterlot Cabana, though it was mostly centered on dragons.

Slash's eyes lit up at that moment, as he smirked, "Suddenly, I feel right at home."

Spike arched an eyebrow, as he looked around, feeling a bit… nostalgic to it all. "Weird," Spike told himself. "Why do I feel so comfy around this place?"

Suddenly, the sound of wheels rolling on the floor caught the boy's attention, as slash hid back into his backpack. Spike turned around, to see a rolling ladder on the shelves being pushed by an old man. In fact, it was the same old man that had scooped up the Elements of Harmony that very day. The man stopped at the bookshelf, as he looked down at Spike. And then surprisingly, the old man smiled brightly as he looked to Spike.

"I was wondering when I'd meet _you_ again in this life," the old man smiled, as he climbed down.

Spike blinked at that, as he asked, "Uh, have we met?"

"Not in this life. Yet," the old man answered, as he rummaged through the shelves, looking for something. "But in a past life… we met."

Spike went wide eye, as he asked, "You mean you're a…" he cupped his mouth, realizing what he nearly said out loud. He then whispered his tone, "You were a pony in another life?"

The old man chuckled, "Hehehehehhe. No, no, no. I was a dragon. In fact, one of the elders of the Dragon society. You were once a part of it, but were raised by the ponies, as your egg was with them at the time of your birth."

Spike's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree, as his smile grew, realizing the knowledge he learned, "Whoa. I was a dragon? A mighty, ferocious, fire breathing dragon?"

The old man chuckled once again, as he continued his search, "Ah, no. You were more of a baby dragon. Well, in your age, a baby in appearance, but more of a young boy much like yourself."

His smile left, as Spike grumbled at that fact, "Oh great. That's so much better."

"Although small…" the man explained, as he knelt down a shelf, as he picked up a particular item. "… your heart was as large as a full grown dragon. Once you found the one destined to be your other half." He then walked over to the two, and presented them with a special little something, that Slash easily recognized, as he popped out.

"The Elements of Harmony!"

Spike went wide eye, as he shoved Slash back in, "Slash! What about the whole thing of being discreet?"

"It's quite alright," the old man waived off. "If anything, I'm aware of Celestia and Slash all the same. But I believed these are yours." Spike graciously took them, as he nodded, but the old man pondered aloud, "Still, it's curious… very curious…"

Spike raised an eyebrow, as he asked, "Um, sorry but… what's curious?"

The old man sighed, as he tapped his chin, "I remember every gem and stone I've ever come across; past life or current. It so happens that these gems were both used by the Princesses of the Sun and Moon. Each one in charge of three of them. It just seems curious that you and the girls are destined to fight against the same evil with the same method."

Spike blinked at that, as he asked, "And… what evil is that?"

The Man looked serious, as he simply answered, "Oh. We do not speak his name. Much like the Elements, destiny chooses who will be who, Mr. Spike. It's not always clear why they choose that person. But I think it is clear that we can expect great things from not just you, but the six girls who bear the Elements of Harmony. After all, Nightmare Moon did great things. Terrible, yes! But… great."

"Excuse me," an elderly Chinese woman appeared within the store, as she walked in. She walked towards the two, as Slash hid back in Spike's backpack, as she asked, "I am looking for very rare jewels. Do you have any available."

"I'm sorry, but I sold the last set to this young man," the elderly man stated.

The elderly woman looked at Spike, as she kindly asked, "Oh, you are a lucky young man to have purchased such rare bobbles."

The old man stopped, as he suddenly spoke in what sounded like Chinese, "**Your hair looks rather stunning, my dear.**"

The old lady smiled, as she was amazed to hear that dialect, "Ooooh, you speak very good Mandarin, my good sir."

The old man nodded… but then breathed a fire blast at her, sending her flying across the room and hitting the wall. Spike went wide eye, as he was about to protest on violence towards the old lady, until the old man spoke up, "That was Cantonese, Nightmare Moon."

Spike blinked, as Slash popped up, as the two saw the old lady warple and morphed into Nightmare Moon before all three of their eyes. She politely stood up, as she brushed her sleeves off, "Oh dear. I really need to tell the difference next time." She then smiled at Spike, as she explained, "Tell me, Spike, darling. Did you know this old man, Fang, is in charge of imprisoning dragons that weren't as peaceful in Equestria? He still keeps them; in egg-shaped jewels, that he keeps around the store. Merely for display, never for sale. In fact… I seem to recall there was a particular dragon that spoke such beautiful Cantonese."

They didn't notice it, but a flock of golden butterflies were forming behind them, taking the shape of a man. It continued to take shape, as Nightmare Moon wondered, "Now what was his name? Oh yes, I remember now. Sun Lok: the Golden Dragon, as they called him."

"I remember the name all too well," the old man, Fang, reminiscence. "He was responsible for the destruction for many Pony villages. He even attempted to destroy the Crystal Empire along with Sombra."

Finally, the butterflies finished taking shape, into the form of an Asian man with light golden skin, white eyes, a thin strand of black hair for his beard and his hair, into a ponytail, and had long black fingernails that looked like claws. He wore a pair of red baggy pants with golden bands on the ankles for his black boots, gold bands on his wrsist, and a golden red belt with the depiction of a dragon.

"Yes," Nightmare Moon smirked. "And I seem to recall you and Celestia had a hand in trapping him when I was locked in the moon." She then held up a broken topaz egg, as she smirked, seeing the small shock on both their faces, "Ooops. I let him out."

Fang turned around, as Sun Lok breathed out a massive flame that Fang blocked with his arms, almost absorbing it. He looked to Spike as he shouted, "Spike! Get the Elements out of here! Fast!"

Slash popped out, as he stated the obvious, "We need Twilight here! Now!"

Spike nodded, as he pulled out his cellphone, and started dialing her number, "I just hope she answers in time."

* * *

**Back at Twilight's Lab**

After she had given Pinkie the tour, the two were lounging about in the car/bedroom that Twilight had. Pinkie was hopping on the makeshift bed, smiling that it was so comfy, as she kicked her shoes off. She kicked her legs in the air, as Twilight was amazed that this girl had such a carefree spirit about her. Sometimes she kind of envied in having such a spirit, as she just seemed so plain.

Twilight sat down, as Pinkie Pie stated, "I gotta admit, Twilight. This is a pretty cool place you and your little brother live here."

Twilight shook her head, "Nah, this is where I do most of my lab stuff."

Pinkie Pie sat up, as she arched an eyebrow, "Really? Where's your parents and your old place?"

"They're visiting my older brother, Shining Armor, outside of sea in the Eastern world. A place he's stationed in called the Crystal Empire, so to speak," Twilight explained. "As for our apartment home…" she remembered it had been trashed by Nightmare Moon, and knew they couldn't go back home at the moment until Nightmare Moon could be stopped. So she let a little fib out, "Well… it's kind of going on repairs at the moment."

"Ooooh, so this is a temporary stay here," Pinkie deduced. But then shrugged, "It's a shame. Those Tesla coils you got, might make pretty good light shows."

"If you're in a cage," Twilight suggested. But then she turned her attention, as she got right on the subject, "So… what was it you wanted my help with? Math?"

"Nope," Pinkie said, as she kicked her legs in the air without a care in the world.

"Literature?"

"Nuh-uh."

"Science?"

"X-nay."

Twilight raised an eyebrow, as she asked, "Well, if you're not having trouble in schoolwork, what did you need my help with?"

"I wanted to know what kind of music you like," Pinkie answered. "That way, I can tell Scratch what music to bring."

Twilight raised an eyebrow, as she asked, "Scratch?"

"Vinyl Scratch," Pinkie Pie answered, as she explained. "She's a student at the Music department. She makes for a great DJ; worked a few parties with her. She's awesome. She even has her own sound equipment."

Sighing and hanging her head in defeat, as she thought, 'Man, I was hoping to learn magic from Slash tonight, as soon as they found the Elements of Harmony.' But then she looked forward, as she saw Pinkie Pie laughing, and spinning around in her office chair seat. The sight made Twilight smile, as she admitted to herself, 'But then again… this was probably worth it.'

RING-RING

Twilight raised an eyebrow, as she dug through her pockets, recognizing her own ringtone. She pulled out her cellphone, as she answered, "Hello?"

-Hello, Twilight?-

"Spike?" Twilight arched an eyebrow. "What's going on?" But then she went wide eye, as she heard an explosion. "Was that an explosion!?"

-Yes. Yes it was, Twilight. That was incredibly perceptive of you to know. Glad to know you've kept that from your past life.-

"Slash? What's going on," Twilight asked, sounding pretty worried, while Pinkie slowly popped up at a corner, listening in to the conversation.

-Oh, nothing much. Just wanted to report that we found the Elements of Harmony… and that Nightmare Moon found them as well.-

Twilight went wide eye with worry, as she gulped, "And that's where the explosions are coming from?"

-Well, actually… that's her hired help we're currently avoiding at the moment.-

"I'll get there as fast as I can," Twilight assured him, but then frowned, as she grumbled. "Course it might be faster if I had a car. Dang it! And I only have a learner's permit."

-No sweat. I can teleport you to the store via a spell Celestia taught me.-

"Teleport, wha…?"

Suddenly, a white circle formed under her, as it stretched ten feet around her, and unknowingly catching Pinkie Pie as well. A great pillar of light shot up, as the magic activated, and once it died down, both Twilight and Pinkie Pie… were gone.

* * *

**Back at the Convenient Shop**

Suddenly, outside the store, unbeknownst to the crowds forming, the same pillar of light fired down in a darkened alleyway, as it died down again. A wobbly Twilight was making herself steady again, as she groaned, "Ugh… that felt weirder than normal."

"Yeah, tell me about it."

Twilight's eyes went wide with shock, as she realized she wasn't alone. Even more shocked, she knew the owner of the voice, as she turned around slowly accepting what had just happened. And there, leaning against the wall, about to throw up with a huge pale green flushing around her face… was Pinkie Pie.

Twilight blinked, as she asked, "Pinkie Pie? What are you doing here?"

"Ugh… did you see that pillar of light a few seconds ago," Pinkie groggily asked, as he managed to shake it off. "Feels like my bones are vibrating and my stomach's been thrown in a paint can shaker." But in a miraculous second, she was back to normal, as her cheerful self smirked, "Can we do that again?"

Twilight shook her head, as she stated, "I'd rather not until I'm used to it." She ran out of the hallway, as Pinkie Pie watched her go.

"Wait," she called back, as she followed after her. "Twilight! Come back!"

Once Twilight had made her way out onto the street, she looked around, trying to find where they were. As Pinkie Pie caught up with her, the pink-haired lass asked, "Twilight, what's going on? What or who are you looking for? And how did we get here? Was it because of that strange white pillar a while ago?"

Unable to cope with the questions, Twilight turned around, as she placed her hands on Pinkie's shoulder, as she tried to steady herself. "Pinkie…" she huffed out, causing Pinkie Pie to look worried, but then Twilight looked to her sympathetically, as she replied, "Look. Something really bad's going to happen. I don't want anything to happen to someone I've… befriended."

Pinkie Pie's eyes widened up and sparkled with a state of surprise on those words that Twilight spoke up on. Even her smile widened to insane proportions. The scene felt a little bit weird as Twilight saw this expression appear on her face. She finally managed to speak out, "Uh, Pinkie…?"

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie grabbed onto her in a hug, as she squealed out, "OHMYGOSH! TWILIGH, THANK YOU! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING MY FRIEND, TWILY! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!"

CRASH!

A figure suddenly crashed from a third story window of the convenient shop before them. they fell flat on the ground for a moment, until he stumbled back on his feet, seemingly okay. But once he stabled himself, he noticed the two girls staring at him. Twilight, not knowing who he was, asked, "Oh my gosh. You okay?"

"Twilight?!" Spike called from the shattered window, getting the attention of both girls. "You two should run."

Twilight blinked in confusion, but then looked at the golden dragon-like character, as Twilight seemed to figure it out, as she gulped, "Oh, boy…" She then grabbed a confused Pinkie Pie, as they both ran, with Twilight pulling Pinkie with her. They raced to the front door, and ran inside the building

The golden man frowned at them, recognizing Twilight suddenly, as he began to change, growing in height, fangs growing from his mouth, his back arching up as strange protrusions grew… and horns adorned his head.

* * *

**Inside the Building**

Twilight and Pinkie were running down the hallway, as Twilight was pulling Pinkie like crazy. The pink-haired girl managed to speak out, "Twilight! Why are we running! Who was that Chinese guy, and why was your brother telling us to run?"

"I can't explain right now, pinkie," Twilight tried to speak with her. "All you need to know is that we're in really grave danger!"

Suddenly, a golden and red Chinese dragon shot in through after them, its whiskers twitching, as they dared to whip at the girls. It then began to shoot fireballs at the girls; which sent them flying, as the floor behind them exploded. The girls managed to run into the back, as another fire ball exploded the doorway, as the girls crashed on the street grounds. Suddenly out of the flames, the snake-like dragon slithered our shot out of the fire like a monstrous snake slithering out in its hunting grounds. And both Pinkie and Twilight were the mice, as it hissed at the two. From afar, Nightmare Moon was sitting on a ledge of a roof, and had conjured up a bucket of popcorn to enjoy the show.

"Twilight," Slash called out, as he and Spike had made it to the escape hatch. "Twilight, it's all you now. Use your magic!"

Twilight went wide eye, as she asked, "WHAT!? But I don't know the first thing about using magic!"

Pinkie blinked, as she pointed out, "Is that a dragon on your brother's shoulder? And is it talking?"

"Twilight," Slash called out to her. "Clear your mind! That's the key to using your magic!"

The girls were still under attack, but Twilight managed to stop, as she credulously looked at the small dragon, and questioned, "Clear my mind?! In a situation like this: are you CRAZY!?"

Slash thought about it for a moment, and then quickly held up his two front talons… an inch apart.

Twilight sighed, as she sarcastically remarked, "Little bit. That's great."

The dragon roared at them, as he prepared to lunge at them, but stopped, as everyone heard giggling. Everyone turned to see Pinkie Pie, seemingly laughing at the danger. Twilight thought the girl had cracked under the pressure, but instead she seemed rather calm, but still laughing. The dragon arched an eyebrow at this, as Pinkie Pie made faces and bleched at him, as she continued to giggle and laugh at the scene.

"Pinkie Pie, what are you doing," Twilight asked, and then shouted, "Run!"

She shook her head, as she calmly responded, "Oh, Twilight, you're such a crack up." She then calmly explained, despite the dragon going towards her, "Granny Pie told me that running from your fears isn't the way to deal with fears at all."

Twilight, sweating like crazy, as the dragon was coming at her, "PINKIE!"

The Dragon lunged at Pinkie Pie… but then she hopped up in the air, as it crashed to where she once stood. She then landed on his snout, as she smirked, "She said, 'Pinkie. Ya gotta stand up tall and learn to face yer fears'." The dragon arched up, trying to bite at her, as Pinkie went on, "She told me they can't hurt you. All ya gotta do is laugh, and that'll make your fears disappear."

"Just guffaw at the grossly," Pinkie Pie stated, as the dragon tried to swipe at her. "Crack up at the creepy," and then dodged another series of slashes, "Snortle at the spooky…" and then the dragon crashed again, as it tripped itself into a ball, as Pinkie landed on the heap, and pointed out, "And then tell that big dumb scary face to take a hike and leave you alone, and if he thinks he can scare you then he's got another thing coming and the very idea of such a thing just makes you wanna… wanna…" and then laughed again and again.

The scene left Twilight in awe at Pinkie's fearlessness, as well as adjustment to the whole talking dragon, dragon trying to kill her, stuff. Even Slash and Spike were amazed by it too, as Spike's eyes lit up with amazement, "Wow. She can really hold her own against them."

Slash looked amazed for a moment, but then narrowed his sights on Pinkie, 'It's not about holding her own. It's almost as if she can predict when something's about to happen. Not psychically, but more like she can sense something's going to happen and then act fast to counteract with it.'

But then Slash noticed a glow in Spike's backpack, and began to rummage through it rather quickly. Spike felt his backpack stirring, as he looked at the little dragon, "Slash, what are you looking for?" Finally, Slash pulled out, along with something in his front paw, as he opened it, revealing the blue balloon Element of Harmony. And the gem was glowing, much to Spike's astonishment, "Why's it glowing like that? What's it mean?"

"It means the Bearer to the Element of Laughter is nearby," Slash answered, as he looked down on the battlefield. "Much closer than we anticipated."

* * *

**Back at the Fight**

The dragon was tide up in knots; a result of it trying to snag Pinkie Pie with its fangs. The pink-haired girl hopped off the dragon, as she struck a pose, as she smirked, "No dragon can stop the Party-Master!"

Twilight, was shocked and amazed at the same time, as she spoke up, "Pinkie Pie. That was amazing. How'd you know where the dragon would go and move like that?"

Pinkie lit up, as she winked an explanation, "Oh, I have this sixth sense that lets me know of stuff. I like to call it my Pinkie Sense."

Twilight blinked, as she asked, "Pinkie sense?"

Pinkie Pie merely shrugged, "Yeah, I'll have to explain it to you later on."

At that moment, Spike ran down the store way and towards them, as he hopped out, "Whoa! That was amazing!" Twilight smiled at that, as he ran past her… and at Pinkie Pie. "I mean, the way you dodged from the dragon the whole time, it was awesome!"

Twilight's eye twitched at that, as she slowly creakingly turned around to face them both, as Pinkie Pie scratched the back of her head, as she smirked, "Oh, it was nothing…"

"Hey!"

The two turned to see Twilight upset that she was ignored, as she pointed out, "I helped too, you know!"

The two blinked, as Spike finally asked, skeptical, "Really?"

Twilight frowned, but then she blinked, as she saw the dragon untangling itself, as it slowly rose up. She stuttered out, "uh, guys…?"

But then suddenly, Pinkie Pie started shaking up and down, like being put in a paint shaker. Spike blinked, "What's wrong, Pinkie?"

"HU-DUDHDHDHDDDHDHUUU!" She stopped, as she shook her head, "I dunno. I mean, I know the other bodily shakes of my Pinkie Sense happen, but that was a doozy. I don't know what it's for…"

"GUYS, BEHIND YOU!" Twilight screamed out.

The two looked behind them, and saw the dragon, untangled, as he was ready to breathe out a blast. Acting on instinct in her heart, Twilight ran in front of htem, as the blast shot right at them in a wave of flames. But as it was closing in, the element of Harmony around Twilight's neck glowed and resonated with her emotions. They were a strong urge to protect those that were important to her. It was almost as if… as if a spark had been ignited within her.

Suddenly, Twilight's body glowed bright violet, as her clothes dissipated, leaving her glowing naked form in place, as violet beams streamed over her, and stars glistened about her, until they flashed, igniting a violet bubble of magic around her, Spike, and Pinkie Pie.

Once the light died down at Twilight, the two were able to see what had happened to her. Even Spike blinked, as he stuttered, "Tw-Twilight…"

She stood there, transformed as she was now in a completely different outfit than her uniform. She wore a light purple one piece bathing suit-like outfit, with it opened from neck to bellybutton, but inside the opening, there was a dark purple cloth covering the opening, and a darker purple collar covering the upper part of her chest. She had a purple mini cape that went down her mid-back and had three points on it. Around her waist was a pink mini-skirt with a star-like light purple cloth dangling in the front of her loin, and wrapped around the mini-skirt's waist was a pink belt with a purple opal jewel acting as a belt buckle. Behind her was a long overcoat tail of sorts colored dark purple, and a pinkish purple stripe down the middle, the tail ending in points as well. She had light purple leggings that went up to her mid thighs, and the trim was purple as well. She wore light purple boots with dark purple leggings surrounding the ankles. She also had big light purple gloves that ended at her wrists, with purple opal gems on the back of her hands. And adorning her head was a purple tiara with pinkish purple ears with purple points that looked like ears, and adorning the center of the tiara was an amethyst unicorn horn.

Slash smirked, "Her Element's awake now." He then hopped on Spike's head, "Twilight. Use your element to fight the dragon!"

"I don't know how to do that," Twilight stated as she managed to somehow strengthen the shield. "I don't even know how I'm making this bubble around us. The only think I know is science."

"Well, then that's good," Slash pointed out. "Okay, you know that all molecules are in a state of flux every now and then. So how's fire started?"

"Molecules vibrating," Twilight answered.

"exactly," Slash stated. "Now, I want you to imagine the molecules outside the bubble vibrating on that frequency. Will it like you're willing the bubble. And then force that power right at Sun Lok."

Twilight soaked that all in, and began to concentrate on it. Suddenly, the fire slowly started to push back the flames, much to Sun Lok's struggling. Until finally, the flames engulfed him, as he roared out in agony, trying to fight the flames that were eating him at that moment. Until finally, eh collapsed down, and dissipated into golden dust.

Once they saw he was gone, Twilight managed to dissipate the barrier, as she huffed out in relief, almost as if she had run a mile. Suddenly, Pinkie Pie ran up to her, and hugged her tightly, "Wow, Twilight! That was amazing." She then pulled back, and smirked at Twilight's ensemble, as she ooed and awed at it, "Whoa… that outfit's amazing. You look like a Magical girl like in those Japanese animes."

Twilight blinked for a moment, and then looked at the outfit she was now adorning. She twirled around, allowing the cape to swish, as she smirked, "Nice. I look like a real magic user."

"And a fitting look for the Element of Harmony," Slash added.

Pinkie went wide eye with the dragon, as she nearly gasped out, "He can talk?!"

The trio looked around one another, silently discussing the situation in hand. Finally, Twilight looked to Pinkie Pie, as she stated, "Pinkie… there's something we need to tell you."

Pinkie blinked, as Twilight was about to answer, but Pinkie Pie beat her to it, as she spoke up, "We're actually the reincarnations of sentient pony beings from another world, where magic exists. And the pendant around your neck is a magical element of six other elements that are supposed to protect the world from evil and imbalance. And now in this life, the two of us as well as four others, are being called back to action to stop evil from reigning destruction of the world, as well as to rebuild the home and kingdom, so that we can spread the lessons of harmony to the world and make it a better place for everybody." And then finished smiling gleefully.

Twilight went wide eye and her jaw dropped at that assumption. Spike and Slash also did that too, as they were stunned to hear the news coming out of Pinkie like that. Finally, Twilight asked, "H-How did you know all that?"

Pinkie Pie merely shrugged, "Call it a hunch."

"Wow," Slash blinked. "That's some hunch you got there."

Pinkie looked to Slash, and smiled, "Thanks."

Nightmare Moon watched as the little group sped off, as she merely disappeared, knowing full well she would need extra forces to deal with the upcoming Guardians.

* * *

**Later On**

**Twilight's Lab**

A while later, they had returned to Twilight's Lab, where Slash had given Pinkie Pie her Element of Harmony, the Element of Laughter. He commented on her how well tuned her element to her was, as she was joyous enough, hopping around everyone. Once that happened, Pinkie's element activated, surround her naked blue form in a spiral of water, until finally, the water died down, revealing her in her Guardian Form, much like Twilight was.

Pinkie stood in place, as she was in awe at her new getup. She was wearing a pinkish two piece sporting uniform as the main outfit; her upper part was a pink turtleneck sleeveless shirt with the breast area in white, and the trim above her belly button was white. She wore a sleeveless pink hoodie with white fluff trim around the hoodie and shoulders, but had two aqua colored opal shoulder guards. On her wrists were white opal and blue circle hand guards that ended at the middle of her forearms, and covered her hands from the back, and had ring entries for the thumbs and index finger to hold it in place. She had pink short shorts with white fluff trim around the leg openings, and thin white trim for the belt, and behind the belt it stretched down to a big fluffy pink tail part. She had on pink mini-boots, much like Twilight's, but had white trim around the leggings, and white soles, toes, and ankles. And adorning her head was a white tiara that had blue ears with white pointy curled ends sticking up like anteanas, and the front of the tiara was broken into tiny circular droplets with the main one a blue sapphire opal.

Pinkie twirled around, as she jumped for joy, "ALRIGHT! I'M A MAGIC GIRL TOO!"

Twilight, on the other hand, was stumped to say the least when she saw it. "I don't get it," she asked, stumped, as she looked to Slash. "How did she do it so well? I had trouble the first time."

"At a guess: I'd say she's more intuned with her Element than you are at the moment," Slash stated.

Spike blinked, "Wow. Pinkie's better at this than you are."

Twilight looked freaked out by that, but shrugged it off, as she stated, "So? I-I've managed to use magic."

"Hey, guys. Check this out," Pinkie smirked, getting their attention. "Lookie what I can do!"

Suddenly, streams of water sprouted from leaks on the floor, surrounding Pinkie Pie with stunning water ribbons, as she giggled, "I can control water! This is so cool!" but then it froze up around her, as she shivered in cold, "Brrrr, man that's cold."

"And apparently, she can control Ice too," Spike replied.

Suddenly, sparks and earth being moved caught the trio's attention, as they looked in the center of the room. There, Slash had blown flames on the ground, and a magic circle was being embedded in it. Like streaming tissue paper, colorful flames danced within the patterns of the circle, as the trio stopped. Pinkie Pie transformed back, as Twilight asked, "Slash? What is that?"

"This is the Starswirl Circle," Slash stated, as he flew in the center, and hovered there, looking at Twilight. "It focuses your energy, helps you master new spells. It is where you will learn the Art of Mastering your Element, Twilight. Step inside, you leave everything else behind. Once you enter, there is no going back.

Twilight blinked at that, as she finally asked, "So I should probably pee first?"

Slash raised an eyebrow, as he shook his head, "It won't take that long. I think you can hold it. And yes, I get the joke you had earlier."

"The Circle has Seven domains. Each one corresponding to one of the Seven Arts a Unicorn or Magic User must master. There's the Alchemy of the **Mind**…" he then suddenly spoke in Twilight's mind, as his lips didn't move, as he went on, '… the domain of telepathy, second sight and psychic attack. The Alchemy of the **Elements**…' the four elements appeared before the dragon, as he went on, "… in this, you'll learn to start and control Fire, Earth, Wind, and Water."

Pinkie Pie hopped up and down, as she cheered on, "Oh! Oooh! Like me!"

He then smirked as he pointed out, "The Alchemy of** Motion** is a favored around all Magic users. Basically, it's levitation, telekinesis, compressing air molecules to create a concussive blast…"

He then suddenly levitated a chair, and then forming a small ball of air in his paws… shot it over to the chair, as it knocked it across the room. The sight made Spike and Pinkie Pie applaud in amazement. To which Slash bowed in response, and then smirked, "The Alchemy of **Transformation**…" He then morphed into a duplicate of Twilight, which shocked the girl, as he smirked, speaking in her voice, "… pretty explanatory."

Twilight frowned, as Slash reverted back to his old self, and she dronely pointed out, "Don't. Do that. Again."

Slash smirked, but then got serious as he pointed out, "The last two are the most important, as well as the most powerful. The Alchemy of **Space-time** is little understood. Astral projection, teleportation… well, it's best to show." He then looked to Pinkie Pie, "You got any change?"

"I've got about 10 cents," Pinkie answered, rummaging through her pockets.

"Toss them in the air," Slash ordered. Pinkie Pie did as he asked, and then he blew blue flames at it. And all of a sudden, the dime froze slowly in the air, as the others blinked. "Took me about ten years to learn how to do that. It paid off when I used it to stop Nightmare Moon that night to save you and Spike." The coin then returned back to normal speed, as it fell into Pinkie's pocket, to which she opened it up for it to land in.

Twilight then blinked, "And the final Alchemy?"

"The Alchemy of **Matter**," Slash answered. "And the famous law of physics holds true: it can be neither created nor destroyed. A magic user just has to know where to find the loopholes."

Spike arched an eyebrow, as he interrupted, "Whoa, wait a minute. You said there were seven domains, but you only mentioned six. What's the seventh?"

Slash smirked, "Ah, you thought to ask, as well as point out." He then turned to Twilight, as he smirked, "The last domain, is the Alchemy of Emotion. And yes, we won't win with sending valentines to Nightmare Moon."

Twilight asked, "Then what does the Alchemy of Emotion have to do with magic?"

"The more one feels, the stronger their determination becomes," Slash explained. "Some say emotions power the very magic we use. Love is the most powerful force in the known universe. And love itself stems from even the most common of bonds, like a simple meeting, family…"

Twilight nodded, as she figured it out, "… and friendship. That's the Seventh Domain, isn't it?"

Slash nodded, "Yep, and you've already reached the first step. Now all that's left… is to find the others. And with each friend you make… the stronger your magic will become."

Twilight smirked, as she looked to Spike and Pinkie Pie, "Well then… let's go find them."

"ALRIGHT!" Pinkie Pie said, as she ran into the circle, ignoring the slack-jawed Slash and Spike, as she hugged Twilight, "We're gonna get the Guardians back together! Again!"

"ACK! Let go," Twilight begged, as Pinkie's strength was crushing her. "Lemmie go! GACK!"

Slash flew over to Spike, as he landed on his shoulder, "Let's hope the others aren't as crazy as her."

"I don't think crazy's the word to describe Pinkie Pie," Spike commented.

* * *

**Elsewhere**

Nightmare Moon was sitting in a dark and abandoned building of sorts. Its location was a mystery, making it a perfect place to hide. Nightmare Moon knelt down in a flaming blue circle, as she bowed her head in respect. "Forgive me, Master," she apologized to someone unseen. "Celestia's servant has found the Bearers of the First and Last Elements of Harmony."

_"I wouldn't worry so much, my young apprentice."_

"But they have their magic," Nightmare argued.

_"But they can not control it well enough. They are only two, but only with six, can they truly be considered a threat."_

"I tried to recruit Sun Lok, but he wasn't strong enough," Nightmare Moon confessed. "We need help."

Then suddenly, clawed hands covered completely in shadowed darkness, almost as if pure black was his pigmentation, gently clasped on Nightmare's shoulders, as two red eyes and a mouth of sharpened white teeth smirked, as it spoke again, _"Then you must form your own disciples, and use them to fight the Guardians… before the night of the Eclipse. The Rising of Darkness will not be interrupted this time."_

* * *

**Next Chapter: A Soul of Honesty; Fixing a Broken Trust**


	5. Fixing a Broken Trust pt 1

**Equestria Guardians: Friendship is Magic**

* * *

**Chapter 5: A Soul of Honesty; Fixing a Broken Trust pt.1**

* * *

**The Next Day**

**Canterlot Academy**

Twilight and Pinkie Pie were sitting alone with one another, discussing on their latest plan. Now that the two had their elements of Harmony, four still remained, and that was their top priority: finding the four. At the moment, Twilight was writing down and jotting down names that would have been prime candidates. Pinkie was dining on a sundae that she had made back at the Cake Pastry store; Twilight had something as well, as she was sucking on a chocolate mint star smoothie, one of the favorite desserts she liked. At the moment, she put her pencil down, and reviewed the pad for her and Slash, who popped up out of her backpack next to her.

He had adopted the form of a dark blue and white puppy dog, with his head features resembling his spiked mane. He looked at the list, as he asked, "Okay, so who do we have so far?"

"Well, from what Pinkie Pie's managed to scrounge up on her own party list…"

Pinkie nodded, "Yep!"

Twilight smirked, as she looked at the list, "So far, they all seem like good candidates to investigate…"

**Cherrilee**

**Junebug**

**Cherrie Jubilee**

**D. Hooves**

**Bulk Biceps**

**Olivia**

**Vinyl Scratch**

**Blossomforth**

**Flitter**

**Cloudchaser**

**Lightning Dust**

**Diamond Rose**

**Minty Scoops**

**Tealove**

**Cherry Berry**

**Lucky Clover**

**Cherry Fizzy**

**Noteworthy**

But the list kept going on and on, until Twilight's brain nearly fried from all the information. Though for Pinkie, it was too late, as she seemed like a drooling monkey. Twilight blinked, as she commented, "Wow. That's a lot of names to sort through."

Finally, snapping out of it, Pinkie returned to normal, as she looked at the list. "I know, the thrill of the hunt's the best part of all of this," Pinkie Pie smirked. "I mean, it's like a scavenger hunt. Only we don't know how to tell whether or not they're a bearer of harmony."

Slash shook his head, as he pointed out, "Girls, have you forgotten? You have the Elements to sort them out."

Twilight dug into her backpack, and pulled out the display case that had the four remaining elements inside. "When they're near the ones they're destined for, they'll glow."

"Yeah, but it's like a dousing rod," Pinkie Pie pointed out. "They could have at least a little bit of a chance, and we could make the wrong mistake."

"They only glow… when the Bearers are present," Slash reminded them. "Meaning, they'll only glow when their destined owner is near."

It was then that after a moment, Pinkie Pie nodded, "Ooooh that makes more sense than I thought."

But then Twilight noticed four names on the list that had almost left out:

**Applejack**

**Rarity**

**Fluttershy**

**Rainbow Dash**

Twilight tapped her chin, as she asked, "Maybe we should check around these four first on the plan."

"Why those particular four?" Pinkie asked, earning looks to her in shock. She smirked, knowing full well why they looked at her like that. She chuckled, "You guys didn't think I was paying attention, did you?"

Twilight shrugged as she looked at the names, a little curious but at the same time, she felt familiar to them, "I don't know. It's weird for me saying this, but I…" she pulled her hair back to her side, as she finished, "I feel like I've known them. back in my past life."

Pinkie hopped up, as she suggested excitedly, "Oh! Oooh! Maybe you could go into the Avatar State! Have a conversation with your past life! Maybe the old Twilight might have some info on it."

Twilight stood up, and gave Pinkie a lop-sided grin, "Pinkie, I don't think that's gonna work that easily." She then noticed the time, as she stated, "Oh. Class is gonna start, I gotta go."

"Yeah, me too," Pinkie stated, as she hopped off. "Catch ya at lunch, Twily!"

Twilight shook her head, as she picked up her backpack, and Slash smirked, "Looks like things are going well for you, Twilight. You've got your first new friend, as well as a good ally."

Twilight nodded, "Yeah, things seem to look up pretty well." And then started to walk towards class… only to bump into Flash Sentry again.

Flash helped her recover, as he joked, "Man, we have to stop running into each other like this."

Twilight, a little flustered, nodded, and then babbled, "Yeah, it's a thing. This thing, we're doing. Heheheh." And then pulled at her hair, looking away, as she smiled nervously, "You know me… Hehehehe."

Flash chuckled, "Yeah, good thing too. When you said 'No' over again, I realized you were gonna be late for class." He then stepped aside, as he walked off, and waved behind, "I hope to see you around, Twilight. Catch up after five years."

"Yeah," Twilight turned around, as he waved back, and then ran off to his classes.

Twilight's waving slowed down, as she seemed to regret just saying goodbye. She felt like she wanted to run up to him, telling him that aside from the therapy and drugs she went through, one thing that made it worth it was to find him and answer that letter to him. In truth, she felt touched that aside from her anti-social behavior, he wanted to be social with her, to be her friend. And in a deep yearning for a friend back then and now, she wanted him to be one of those friends as well. She placed her hands on her chest, feeling her heart beat in those thoughts.

"Was that the guy?" Slash asked, snapping Twilight out of her thoughts. "The one that gave you the note for the accidental or coincidental meeting with you and Celestia?"

She nodded, "Yeah."

"And you've never had the guts to tell him what your answer was?"

Twilight sighed, as she ran her fingers through her hair, "Last time I tried, bad things happened to me and everyone around me."

Slash had a deadpan look on his face, until he groaned out, "So you turned your back on Magic, Friendship, and even Love, and stuck your nose in books and science for most of your life?"

Twilight looked at her backpack, and frowned, "I'm still alive, aren't I?"

"Yeah," Slash nodded. "But for all those years, you were still alone."

"Ooooh, Burn!" Pinkie pointed out, popping out of nowhere\\. Twilight turned to look at them both with a scowling frown, as the dragon shrank back, while Pinkie was oblivious, as she shrugged, "Eh, you've got time to work on your dating skills."

"WE also have time to teach you basic combat magic tactics," Slash added in. "We're gonna have to pound five years worth into that nerdy head of yours."

"First of which, I'm not a nerd; I'm a dedicated student," Twilight corrected. "And second, we're still on a mission to find the other four Bearers of Harmony."

"You think Nightmare Moon's gonna waste time attacking you as well as the bearers? You think she's gonna wait until all six are banded together," Slash stated. "No. she will strike at any moment, even during this school. I mean, who knows what she's gonna do."

Twilight nodded, but then ran off, "But first, school, and then the search. Afterwards, training."

"You got it," Pinkie screamed out, as she zoomed to her class.

* * *

**Later On**

After class, Pinkie and Twilight were looking all over the school just to find the candidates for the Bearers of Harmony. Luckily, it was Club Time, and mostly everyone was just hanging around campus for their social school extra-curricular. The first place was the Music Room, where a girl named Olivia was sitting down, playing a cello. She was a Caucasian Asian girl with long flowing black hair, physically fit, gray eyes, with a braided sash around her waist. As she played the cello, she did it with the grace and elegance of a very talented musician.

Twilight looked at her at the window door, as she was enthralled with the music. But then questioned, "So what do you think, Pinkie?" But all she got was silence, as she blinked, "Pinkie?" She then turned to her left where Pinkie was, but grew frustrated, as she saw Pinkie sleeping and leaning on the wall, drooling in her sleep all the while. Twilight face-palmed her face, as she groaned, "Oy, now she falls asleep." She looked at Slash, who popped out of the bag in his dog disguise, "How about you? Is she a Bearer of Harmony?"

Slash looked down in the bag, and saw none of the four remaining elements glowing at all. He looked to her as he shook his head, "No such luck."

Elsewhere they tried, this time in the basketball court. There, another girl was playing with music, only she was working a DJ equipment like a pro. She was a Caucasian girl with tanned skin, short spikey blue hair swept to the front like a backwards Mohawk, purplish shades that covered her eyes, and wore headphones on her ears. The music she played was upbeat and hip, worthy of a teen dance club.

Twilight covered her ears as the music was too loud for her, but Pinkie didn't seem to mind, as she swayed her hips, held her arms in the air behind her head, as she was dancing to the beat. And boy was she good at dancing. Twilight looked to Pinkie, and asked, "Is that the girl, Scratch Vinyl?"

Pinkie nodded, "Yep. She's awesome, right?"

"Yeah, if you're into loud music," Twilight stated. But then asked, "What exactly is she doing?"

"She's practicing for the School's Anniversary Festival," Pinkie Pie answered, as she still danced. "It'll be during the Eclipse that day, so it'll be an Eclipse Festival… I think."

Twilight looked to Slash in her backpack and asked, "Anything?"

Slash looked at the elements, and shrugged, "Nothing!"

Twilight sighed, "Alright then…" and then pulled Pinkie away, as she stated, "Let's go."

But Pinkie Pie pouted, "Awwww, do we gotta? I wanna keep dancing…"

Elsewhere, they had tried someone else from far away… although she was looking at them in confusion. She was a girl with short cut blonde hair that ended at her shoulders, swept to the left, and had topaz colored eyes, and Caucasian skin. She was physically fit, wore the girl's school uniform with baggy socks and white sneakers, and had a gray sweater shirt plopped onto her shoulders like a cape. She was currently eating a delicious muffing. But her most distinguishing feature was her right eye was lazy, as it was not aligned with her other eye.

So far, Slash shook his head, indicating that she wasn't a bearer of Harmony. Twilight looked to Pinkie, who had made the suggestion, as she said, "Nope. Not a bearer."

Pinkie Pie groaned, "Awwww. I was hoping she would; she makes great muffins, that Derpy."

Slash raised an eyebrow, as he asked, "What kind of name for a girl is Derpy?"

The three walked off, as they left Derpy eating her muffin. But she stopped, as she looked at the trio, and asked herself, "Did that dog just talk?"

Afterwards, the two split up to get better ground, with Twilight holding the Elements of Kindness and Honesty, while Pinkie took Loyalty and Generosity. At the moment, Twilight was cautiously looking at a particular girl: Fluttershy. The girl was at the moment feeding a little white bunny, and talking to him. It was almost as if she understood what the little guy was saying. "Okay, Angel Bunny, little bites," Fluttershy advised the little rabbit, who seemed a bit annoyed by his owner. "You don't wanna choke now, do you?"

Twilight then reached into her bag, as she dug for the two elements, "Okay… let's see if there's a reaction from her." But as she pulled out the elements, a little blue jay caught her attention for a moment, as she looked away. Once she knew what it was, she looked back, and then frowned, as Fluttershy was gone, "Darn it." But unknown to her… the Element of Kindness… was glowing slightly.

* * *

**Elsewhere**

"WAIT!" Pinkie Pie screamed out, as she was chasing the current girl she wanted to check. It was Rainbow Dash, as the two were running around the place. Well, it was Rainbow Dash running away from Pinkie Pie, as she shouted, "Wait! You have to let me check something!"

"Get away, you crazy girl!" Rainbow Dash shouted, as she kept running away from Pinkie Pie.

"But I just wanna check something!"

Pinkie ran after her, as she passed a tree, as she called out, "WAAAAIIIIITTT!"

However, Rainbow Dash hung from a tree branch by her legs, as she blinked, looking at Pinkie's retreating form, "Sheesh. What the heck was with that girl?"

* * *

**Afterwards**

The two girls sighed as they plopped on the bench, completely defeated. After school, they were dressed in normal attire than the usual school uniforms. Twilight was dressed in a light purple t-shirt blouse, with a dark purple skirt that reached to her knees, dark purple socks and light purple sneakers. The 6th Element was around her neck like a pendant necklace. Pinkie Pie wore a black choker with a little gold pendant on it, a light blue t-shirt that didn't bother to hide her cleavage, blue and white sneakers, a pink mini-skirt perfect for dancing, and a yellow belt with a yellow phany pack strapped to the belt, and the Element of Joy was around her left wrist, like a bracelet.

Spike was running out as well, and dressed in normal clothing as well. He was wearing green baggy shorts, with purple sneakers with green lacings, a purple hoodie jacket with a green hood and sleeves, as well as a belt to fasten around it. Once he saw the girls, looking defeated, he walked over to them, and asked, "I'm guessing the search didn't go as well as you guys thought, right?"

"No," Twilight groaned. "We thought it would be easy to find at least one bearer of harmony today…"

"But it was a zip, a big fat zero on the search today," Pinkie Pie finished.

Spike sighed, "Man, that stinks." But then he blinked, as he pointed, "Did you check that girl yet?"

The two blinked, as the turned around and looked behind the bench to see the girl Spike was talking about. There, they spotted the girl in particular. It was Applejack, and like the three, she was in casual attire as well. She was wearing a white sleeveless shirt, with cut jean short shorts that had the bottom of the pockets exposed, a light brown mini jacket with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, and brown cowboy boots to complete her look. Although she also had her cowboy hat on, as well as a yellow belt around her waist. She was currently walking over to what looked like a beaten up truck, as she hopped on into the back. The truck drove off.

Twilight blinked, and looked to Spike, "Who? Applejack?"

Spike nodded, "Yeah, didn't you guys even bother to check her?"

Pinkie Pie shrugged, "She doesn't hang around a whole lot of people. She's a little bit like Twilight used to be; she just avoids everyone." But she cupped her chin, as she smirked, "Though… some guys find her pretty hot. The whole country gal thing; a mix of Daisy Duke and the Lone Ranger bit."

Slash popped up out of the backpack, and stated, "Well, either way, we've gotta check her out."

Twilight nodded, "Agreed." But then blnked, as she shrugged, "Does anybody know where she lives?"

"Oh, I know," both Pinkie and Spike answered, which caused the two to blink at the sudden knowledge that they both knew. But then they both said, "Jinx! You owe me a fizzy apple cider!"

"Ugh!" Twilight groaned in frustration. "Where?!"

Both Pinkie and Spike looked to one another, and then to Twilight, as they both answered, "Apple Acres Farm. JINX!"

* * *

**Later On**

**Apple Acres Farm**

The trio, or quartet if they counted a stowaway in Twilight's backpack, had arrived via taxi to the outer ridge of Ponyville. There, they got off from their vehicle, as they made way to a white picket fence and car fence entrance with a sign on top, with only an apple to show its identity. The trio then made it on foot, as they traversed past the entrance, and on to a rocky passage road. As they walked their way, there were acres and acres of apple filled trees as far as the eye can see and each and every one of them looked delicious and ready to be picked off. Once they made their way down the fields and hills, they came to see the household and plantation grounds of the home itself. Once they reached the clearing of the apple tree fields, in the center nearby was a nice little farmhouse with two floors as well as a giant red barn with a purple roof, inside were several farm animals and plenty of hay.

Even Twilight was amazed by all this, as her voice was gentle in amazement, "Whoa. I can't believe it. I've never seem this many apple trees in my life around a single farmhouse."

"Twilight," Spike corrected. "This is the only farmhouse and apple trees you've ever seen. Ever."

Twilight blinked at that, and then blushed in embarrassment, "Well, from standard pictures I've seen, of course."

"What y'all doin' on this farm, youngsters!?"

The trio jumped out of their shoes, as they whipped around to see who had called them out. Right behind them was a southern Caucasian lady around sixty or seventy years old, gray hair bunned up in the back, and sharp but wise green eyes. She was wearing a faded yellow button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a red skirt, yellow goulashes, and a white apron with a pie design sewn into it. She was currently holding up a shovel like a bat, and boy did she look angry.

"You youngins and yer dang foolhardy pranks," she hissed out angrily, thinking these three were gonna trash her farm. "Watcha want, eh?! TP the farm, spray paint on the sides of the barn Apples Stink?! Or maybe ya wanna take down the apple trees instead! Them trees are the lifeblood of Ponyville, ya hear?! Y'all do that, and you might as well be spittin' on the whole town name! Don't ya kids know anythin' about dis here town's history?!"

The girls didn't know what to do in this situation, until someone called out, "Granny Smith, don't!"

Suddenly, a girl around Spike's age hopped out from one of the trees, and landed right next to the old lady. She was Caucasian, around Spike's height, green eyes, slim but tough; a country girl body, and red flowing hair tied up with a pink bow in the back. She was wearing a yellow and green T-shirt, blue jeans, and a pair of reddish brown cowgirl boots.

The Granny blinked, and looked to the little girl, as she asked, "You know these gals and boy, Apple Bloom?"

She nodded in a response, as she smiled to them, "Course I do, that's Spike; he's my classmate back at Canterlot Academy."

Spike waved, "Yo."

Pinkie nodded, "Pinkie Pie at your services. Whether it's for partying or bakery of sweety sweet goodness."

Apple Bloom then looked to see Twilight, "And you must be Twilight. Spike's older sister."

Twilight nodded, "Yeah. I didn't know Spike to you about me." Unknown to Twilight, Spike was panicking, as he begged Apple Bloom not to go further.

"Yeah, he says you're a worry-wart who sometimes can't get your nose out of a book, and loses it when you're unprepared or when the situation becomes too much for you to handle," Apple Bloom bluntly and brutally said, honestly.

Spike gulped at that, but paled, as Twilight calmly stated, "Did he now?" and then turned slowly to his direction, as her eyes glowed red, as she growled, "I'll have to have a little chat with him later on."

At that moment, Granny Smith's attitude changed from hostile to happy, as she grabbed the three, "Well, why didn't y'all say yer friends of Apple Bloom? Howdy-doo, Miss Twilight, Spike, and Miss Pie! A pleasure makin' your acquaintance. We here at Sweet Apple Acres sure do like making new friends!" She then gently pushed the trio to the farm house, as Apple Bloom followed suit, "Come in, come in. I'll whip up somethin' fer y'all."

* * *

**Inside**

Once the trio had been settled down, Granny Smith had whipped up something in the kitchen really fast, as she asked, "Y'all hungry?"

Twilight heard her stomach rumbling, as did Pinkie and Spike, as Twilight replied sheepishly, "Yeah. But I don't want to trouble you for anything."

"Awww shucks, ain't nothing wrong with feedin' guests," Granny Smith replied. "We haven't gotten any visitors since Applejack don't have any friends to bring around."

Both Pinkie and Twilight blinked at that, as they turned to each other in surprise. But then Granny came out, calling out, "Soup's on, everybody!"

"Well, let's see what we got here," Granny Smith said, as she pulled out a cart of pastries made of the most delicious apples anyone could have ever seen. "We've got Apple Fritters, Apple Dumplin's, Apple Pie, Apple Critters, Apple Crips, Apple Tarters, and Apple Brown Betty." But Granny Smith chuckled, "Hehehehe. The dessert, not my granddaughter's aunty."

Spike was licking his lips with anticipation, while Pinkie Pie looked like she had a mixture of both a seizure and a waterfall coming out of her mouth, as she was drooling like crazy. But Twilight, her eyes were wide with bewilderment, and slight desire for the apple confectionaries.

But Twilight snapped out of it, as she smiled, "Wow. I don't know where to start with all of this."

"I know where I'm gonna start," Pinkie Pie said, as she grabbed the pie, and dug in.

A few minutes later, the trio were satisfied with the pie products, as Granny Smith sat in her rocking chair, drking what appeared to be apple-flavored tea, as Apple Bloom ate a caramel apple. But Spike groaned a little, "Ugh… I ate too much pie."

"Mmmmmmmm," Pinkie Pie sighed in satisfaction, as she rubbed her happy tummy, "I can't believe I ate the whole thing… I believe it… and it was all good."

"Wow. You all really like your apples."

"Of course we do, Twilight," Apple Bloom smiled. "Our family started the Apple-Bucking business, as well as the finest Apple-based products in Ponyville. Granny Smith pretty much yelled it out when she thought you guys were tryin' ta vandalize our home."

"Vandels? Here?!" Granny Smith hopped up.

"No, Granny, they're not vandalizing the farm."

Granny Smith settled down, as she sat back down, "Whew. Them's a relief."

but the calmness was gone, as the door opened to the front, and in walked Applejack, with a lasso on her right arm, and a big sack packed with apples on her left. The bag had to be huge and heavy for any girl, yet she handled it like it was nothing. Following her was a young man perhaps older than her, possibly twenty years old. He was heavy on muscle but looked of the medium build, shaggy blonde hair, and green eyes. He was wearing a white T-shirt with an open button up red shirt, farm gloves, baggy blue jeans, and brown working cowboy boots. He was holding twice the amount of bag of apples, as they walked in.

"Hey, Granny," Applejack smiled, as she waked in. "Big McIntosh and ah got more of the quota than usual. If we all work as hard as this, we'll be able ta make more on the Apple Cider…"

But her smile disappeared, as she stood in shock, as she saw Twilight, Spike, and Pinkie in the room. The shock made her lose her grip on the sack, as she let it drop to the ground, spilling its contents. Big Mac stopped, as he bumped into his little sister, and looked over her, as he saw they had company.

The awkward silence was becoming a bit too much, until Pinkie Pie smiled, oblivious to the situation, as she smiled and waved, "Heya, Applejack! Surprised to see us?"

* * *

**Next Chapter: A Soul of Honesty; Fixing a Broken Trust pt.2**


	6. A Soul of Honesty pt 2

**Equestria Guardians: Friendship is Magic**

* * *

**Chapter 6:** **A Soul of Honesty; Fixing a Broken Trust pt.2**

* * *

The room was silent and awkward once Applejack and the big guy had entered. Things were relatively quiet at that moment, with everyone seemingly frozen in time in a sense of awkward silence. However, that ended as Granny Smith spoke up, "Well, c'mon, Applejack. Big Mac. Don't stand there like a couple of possums starin' down a Doberman on a feedin' time. Intraduce yerselves."

Pinkie Pie hopped up, as she introduced all around, "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie. This is Twilight and Spike. Twilight and Spike, this is Applejack and Big Mac. Twilight and Spike, meet Apple Bloom and Granny Smith. Granny Smith and Apple Bloom, meet Twilight Sparkle and Spike Sparkle…"

And Pinkie would have kept going on, until Twilight politely stopped her, "Pinkie. I think everyone knows who everyone else is."

"Yeah, ah know who y'all are, and I ain't interested," Applejack stated, as she pointed to the door. "Now get yerselves out; y'all ain't welcome."

"Applejack," Granny scolded politely. "They came all this way just ta see ya. Now, they went through a lot of trouble; ya might let'em rest a bit before they go."

"Eeeeyup," Big Mac nodded.

Applejack frowned at her brother, "Whose side you on, Big McIntosh?"

But Apple Bloom pouted a little, as she pleaded, "Awww, c'mon, Big Sis. I barely have any of mah friends over, and any I do manage to make, you always scare off. Afterwards, they never wanna come back again."

"Eeeyuh," Big Mac nodded. Which earned a glare from Applejack that nearly caused him to jump back in startlement.

Applejack glared at them both, trying to get an argument on the subject, but Granny Smith stated, "Well, since y'all are here, what brought y'all over?"

"Yeah, ah mean we don't have a study session until this Sunday, Spike," Apple Bloom reminded the boy.

The two girls, including a glaring and paranoid Applejack, looked to Spike, who innocently shrugged, "I promised I'd help her out with her math and science homework. Sometimes it pays to be the brother of a brainiac sister."

Twilight arched an eyebrow, as she corrected, "The correct term to describe me is an academic student."

"Well, whatever ya call yerselves, we sure could use the extra hands today," Granny Smith chimed, as she put on a pair of kitchen gloves, "Today, we start a'harvestin' the apples that just ripened today. I've got plenty a' orders ta fill, an' all this a'fussin' ain't gettin' the work done faster."

Pinkie Pie hopped up and down on the couch, as she chimed, "Oh! Oh! Pick me to help in the kitchen, Granny! Pick me!" She then stopped, as she clasped her hands together, and smiled brightly, looking up at the ceiling, "Mr. and Mrs. Cake taught me everything I need to know about baking confectionary treats that involve fruit in the mix."

"It's true," Twilight admitted. "She's practically the poster girl for Hostess for the Confectionary Corner on Canterlot High Academy."

Granny Smith lit up like a Christmas tree, as she pulled Pinkie Pie in the kitchen, "Alrighty then, I'll show ya a thing er two with some of the Apple Family Recipes."

Apple Bloom grabbed Spike, as she led him to the stairway, "We can go ta my room and start on the homework early."

"Eh, sure," Spike said nervously, as he was being pulled pretty easily by the redheaded farm girl.

But Applejack, worried for her sister, was about to go after her, as she called out, "Apple Bloom, wait! I don't want ya…" but suddenly, she was pulled back by Big Mac, and hoisted on her shoulder, as he walked outside, with Applejack demanding to be let go, "Big Mac, let me go! I mean it, put me down right now! I ain't a filly no more; I can go walk on mah own!"

"Nnnnope," he said, as he walked outside, but stopped to turn and face Twilight. He then nudged her to follow, "You can help my sister with the maintenance. She's gotta reshingle the roof; I can't help due to the maintenance on the tractor's engines. They broke down again."

Twilight paled, as she asked, "You… want me to work with tools? On your home? With power tools?"

"We're just reshindling the roof on the barn," Applejack groaned, as she finally gave up. "It ain't like rocket science."

"Actually, I can do rocket science," Twilight confessed, as she ran after them. But she stopped as she was six inches behind the towering and muscled Big Mac, coming face to face with Applejack, as the inquisitive Twilight asked the stubborn blonde country girl, "Um, Applejack? During the reshindling, I was hoping we could talk."

But Applejack just huffed, "I got nuthin' ta say to ya."

"Applejack, be reasonable on this," Big Mac advised. "That ain't bein' honest…"

"Oh, stay out of this, Big Mac," Applejack shot out.

Big Mac shook his head, as he stated, "I know, but if she wants to talk to ya., it's best you do so. Just breakin' a promise like that, it ain't exactly a value you want Apple Bloom to learn, is it?"

Applejack stopped for a moment, but then huffed, as she looked to Twilight, or rather death glared at her, as she stated, "Alright. I'll talk with ya while we're workin'."

Twilight smiled brightly, "Great." But then asked, "But… are we going to be on the roof working?"

"That's where I gotta put the new roof tiles on, now don't I?"

Twilight gulped, "Okay."

* * *

**Later On**

**Outside**

**Barn Roof**

After a while on, Big Mac was working on one of the tractors while the girls were working on the roof. In less than an hour, they had replaced the rotten and beat up shingles and were up to the last one. Though the reason it took so long was that Twilight was taking her time to put them in. Which was grating on Applejack's patience, which wasn't easy for the girl. Twilight was meticulously planning all the moves, making all the calculations on them. It was driving Applejack nuts at this time.

Applejack, who was still frowning, looked to Twilight, who seemed to just study the hammer and the nail. The blonde felt like the girl was trying to calculate the easiest way to hammer it in. Applejack just sighed, as she rubbed her temples, and said, "Y'know my daddy always said, 'When you want to insert a nail into a piece of wood, don't do anything fancy or glamorous. Just take the darn hammer and hit the son of a beaver until it's in.' Alright?"

Twilight looked to her, and asked, "What does that even mean? I mean, I'm considered the Smart One, but even I don't get countryisms."

Applejack frowned, "It means stop thinking about it and just hammer in the dumb nail. Once that's done, we can talk and you can get out of here."

Twilight nodded, and then [proceeded to hammer the nail in… but Applejack's impatience got the better of her, as she shouted, "Just hammer it in already!"

This caused Twilight to slip and miss, causing her to throw the hammer, and then slip on the roof. She screamed out as she slid down to the ledge; she clawed at the tiles, but to no use. But Applejack slid down faster after her, as she called out, "Hold on there! I'm a comin'!"

Before she could fully fall of the edge of the roof, Applejack grabbed both her hands, as Twilight hung by the edge of the roof to her elbows. The violet haired girl looked down, as she was frightened of the fall to come, as she yelped, "Oh no! Applejack! What do I do? WHAT DO I DO?!"

Applejack looked around to help push her and Twilight up, but so far, nothing. The rain gutter would work, but it was barely holding both of them in place, as she could hear the bolts straining under the pressure. Applejack knew it was only a matter of time before it broke. But then she looked down for a moment, and then replied, "Let go."

Twilight blinked at that, as she asked credulously looking at Applejack, "Are you _crazy_?"

Applejack shook her head, as she advised her, "No I ain't. Ah promise you'll be safe if you let go."

"Now I know that's not true," Twilight panicked more, tightening her grip on the other girl's hands.

"Now listen here," Applejack advised her, giving her an honest smile on her face, "What I'm sayin' to ya is the honest to goodness truth. If you let go, you'll be safe. I promise."

Twilight blinked for a moment, until she saw the honesty in Applejack's eyes, but then felt a small light lighting up in her backpack. It was like Slash said: the Elements acted like a dowsing rod towards their users. There was no mistake about it; Applejack was one of them. Taking a deep breath, Twilight let go of Applejack's hands, falling off the roof, as she screamed out… and then landed in Big Mac's arms.

Twilight opened her eyes, seeing she had been caught, and sighed, "Phew." But then she saw Applejack climbing down on the haystacks on the side of the house, and back on the ground. As Big Mac set her down, Twilight had to ask, "Applejack… how'd you know that would happen? That Big Mac would catch me?"

Applejack smirked, "Like I told ya: I was speakin' the honest truth, nothin' bad would happen to ya." She then shrugged, "An' besides, you were screamin' louder than a cow bein' milked too hard, that it'd be impossible for him not to hear ya screamin' and come a' runnin'."

Twilight frowned, "Not sure I like that assumption on me."

Applejack looked to Twilight, as she led her somewhere, but stopped, as she looked back to her brother, "Big Mac. Twi and I are done with the roof, so we're gonna get this chitchat over with, and get her and those other two off the property faster than expected, alright?"

Big Mac sighed, knowing full well that his sister was as stubborn as ever, as he nodded, "Eeeyup."

Twilight blinked, as Applejack grabbed her hand, and was taking her through the apple tree grove, "Wait. Where are we going?"

"If we're goin' ta talk, we might as well do it someplace private," Applejack explained. "Ah don't want no audience when I'm tellin' ya the details."

Twilight blinked a little, as she voluntarily followed suit with the country girl, "Oh, alright."

However, unnoticed by anyone, Nightmare Moon was sitting atop the finished shingled rooftop, crossing her leg over the other, as the free leg kicked lightly in the air. She smirked, as she chuckled at the sight, "Hehehehe. Oh, this is just too easy…"

And then disappeared in a wisp of smoke that blew towards the apple trees.

* * *

**A Little White Later**

The two had walked far into the venier of the apple tree grove forest. In fact, the very area was shaded by the trees as they stopped in the middle of an empty yet shaded area. Once they were good and far, Applejack turned around as she looked to her, "Alright, wha…"

"PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!" Twilight screamed out in sheer panic. Once she calmed down, she saw Applejack a bit freaked out by the outburst. Calming down, a sheepish Twilight cleared her throat out, as she confessed, "Sorry, it's just that you brought us out in the middle of nowhere, and I thought.. well… I guess I'm just a bit nervous around the whole brooding loner thing." She then sheepishly shrugged, "I thought you were gonna hurt me or something. You had that look like that…"

Applejack huffed, "Yeah, that's exactly what others woulda thought if they met me long ago."

"Is that why you don't have any friends," Twilight asked innocently, unaware that Slash had followed after the two in puppy form and hid behind a tree.

Applejack then walked over to a tree that had a particular black rope tied around it. She gently traced her hand on it, as she looked up at it, as Twilight asked, "Is that tree important to you?"

"It's my parents' grave marker," Applejack answered, not sounding sad at all. Twilight looked shocked by that, but Applejack replied, "It's not where they're buried, it's just a marker. They died in a car crash five years ago after they had planted this here. They got cremated and Granny scattered their ashes at Applepaloosa in Nevada. I know I can't go over there on a daily basis, so I come 'ere and have this here tree as a tombstone to visit. It's like here, I'm connected to 'em."

Twilight felt saddened by this, as she lowered her head in shame, "I'm sorry about your loss…"

Applejack was saddened but silent, but finally spoke again, "It's alright. Ah still got my big brother, Granny Smith, and lil' ol' AppleBloom. Before they died though, mah mom told me that she wished for me not to be so lonely; she wanted me to make as many friends so ah wouldn't be so lonely."

Twilight's eyes went wide with surprise, as she thought, 'Wow. Just like me…'

"Course, it was around the time ah looked like a boy," Applejack flat out stated, causing Twilight to blink at that. "Basically, flat chest, short hair, and freckles made me stand out as a boy. That, and ah dressed like one too. Made it difficult for any female friends at all, seein' as they thought ah was tryin' ta hit on 'em. It also made it plum difficult for me ta convince the boys ah was a girl. Though all that changed when ah turned eleven; by that time, mah hair grew out, and ah started ta wearin' jean skirts."

"Though that did little to help me make any friends," Applejack huffed, crossing her arms, and looking the other way. Twilight seemed a bit confused on that, but listened on. "All the girls saw me as a country hick with no class, while all the boys felt ah was some kind of weirdo dressin' up like a girl, which they thought ah was still a boy." Applejack groaned, "It's like they all saw me as a porcupine changin' all mah quills from sharp points ta flowers just ta fit in." She sighed, as her expression grew angered as she stated, "Even this one boy made it all clear, stating that he didn't know me really well enough and asked why ah even bothered pretending to be nice."

Applejack sighed, as she admitted, "It was the first time ah wore a skirt; ah even put a flower pin in mah hair and bought that boy a present."

Twilight remembered back on the bus that day with what the girls said behind her back, as she admitted, "Sometimes people can be cruel with what they don't understand things or people."

Applejack looked to her, rather feeling a bit comforted by the empathic comment, "A few years later, when ah started Canterlot High, ah still had no friends. Even though ah was finally recognized as a girl. That same boy who that scoffed me off had seen that, as he and his friends attended the same high school. He even noted ah was pretty. He even had the nerve ta flirt with me. Ah finally explained who ah was and how he and his friends had encountered each other previously. Needless to say, he was pretty shocked as a rabbit face-to-face with a rattlesnake in the desert. He clarified that he had heard a rumor ah was actually the eldest daughter of the Apple Acres Farm. He only heard about it because he said what we did was a lucrative family farm business, but no one knew who ah was or what ah even looked like, since nobody ever ventured out here to the farm."

Twilight blinked at that, "Wow…"

"It was only after realizing that ah wasn't only a girl but rich, he asked me for mah number and invited me to his birthday party the following week," she stated. "He apologized for his actions in the past, telling me that he did have a crush on me back then."

"Sounds like a lie to me," Twilight shot back.

Applejack nodded, "Yeah, ah figured it was back then too … it sickened me to the last straw." She then punched her hand into her empty fist to emphasize what happened next, "That why ah punched him so hard in the face that he needed ta have his whole lower jaw replaced with steel." She cleared her throat, as she stated, "Course, I was exgaggeratin' on that part." She then sighed, "Though, it all pretty much opened mah eyes on the truth: Friends are nuthin' but a bunch of liars."

Once Twilight realized the source of this distrust, she apologized, "I'm sorry to hear that. But you have to believe me that I or Pinkie Pie would never trick/betray you."

Applejack had her backed turned, but then turned to ask, "So now that ah spilled mah life story to ya, what's yer reason for being on the farm lookin' fer me?"

Twilight sighed, as Slash remained hidden behind the tree, as she rubbed the back of her neck, and nervously smiled, "Well, it's like this…"

* * *

**A few Minutes of Explaining Later…**

"So let me get all of this," Applejack clarified, as she folded her arms, leaning against an apple tree. "In another life, you, that Pinkie girl, and ah wer' all ponies, friends, as well as guardians of some mystical magic do-dad, and now we're called back ta action because an evil sorceress got out because of you, and we gotta stop her before the Eclipse by the end of this month? And to top it all off, that lil' puppy dog that's with you is a dragon in disguise?"

Twilight shook her head, feeling she got through to her, "Yes. You believe me?"

"I knew it was a kick in the bucket to listen to ya," Applejack retorted, causing Twilight to slump in defeat. "I knew you were a liar in the beginning, but now I think yer just a few slices short of a pumpernickel loaf. Shoulda know this'd be a waste of mah time."

Twilight frowned, as she asked, "But I'm telling you the truth. Why won't you believe me?"

Applejack stopped leaning on the tree, as she walked around Twilight, "Well, props to you on creativity, this is the most absurd tale ah ever been subjected to. But trust me, ah stopped believin' in fairy tales, unicorns, and pegauses long ago."

Twilight's frowned, as she seemed determined, "So you'd believe me if you saw it for yourself?"

"AS the old sayin' goes: seein' is believin'," Applejack stated, as she turned her back. "But like ah said, Ah don't believe in…" She shook her head, as she sighed, and pointed out, "Look. Just take yer brother, that goofball Pinkie Pie, and git goin'."

Twilight nodded, but then pulled something out of her pocket, revealing the Element of Honesty. "Before we go…" and then walked up to her, as she held it out to the country girl, "I'd like you to have this."

Applejack arched an eyebrow, as she pointed to it, asking, "An' why would ah need that? I mean, the apple gems kinda look like mah family's logo and all, but…"

"If it doesn't accept you, then you were right and that Magic doesn't exist," Twilight stated, but then looked serious to her. "But if it accepts you… then everything I said was true."

Applejack was about to take it, but stopped as she pulled back, "No. If ah take that thing, it'll just mean ah accepted yer friendship, and ah ain't in the mood for friends."

But then Twilight stated, "If you really want us off the farm, then this will be the proof you need so we'll honor the deed."

Unlike Twilight for her first time was hesitant, she just merely took it. Applejack heled it in her left hand, as she examined it, and shrugged, "Okay, how to ah know it'll…" suddenly, the chain came to life, as it latched itself around her arm, snaking upward. Applejack was startled and tried to get at it, but it was too quick. Once it was up enough, it slid around her left bicep gently placing itself in place, as the Apple-shaped gem glowed brightly as its color.

Once the glowing stopped, Applejack was stunned to say the least, as was Twilight, as the country girl asked, "H-How did it do that?"

"Magic," Slash stated, as he popped out from behind the trees, and strode his way to the girls, smirking. "Hello, Applejack…"

The country girl's eyes went wide with shock, as she proclaimed in shock, "He can talk?!"

"Oh yeah," Slash smirked, as Twilight had to stifle from laughing at the scene, remembering her first time of being shocked. "Not only that, but I'm not a dog at all." He stood on his hind legs and took a bow, "I'm actually a ferocious… yet strikingly handsome and debonair… fire-breathing and magic-teaching dragon."

Suddenly, low vicious growls caught their attention, as they looked all around them to find the source of the growls. Twilight, Applejack, and even Slash saw as scattered timber and pieces of strong wood were rolling and floating to one another, sticking together, as they began to form shape and function. The wood piles began to become a pack of wolves made of wood. Their eyes glowed yellow, as they stared at the two girls and dog.

The trio looked in fear, and were silent for a moment, until Slash gasped, "Timber Wolves. Nature's hyenas."

Twilight blinked at that, as she looked at Slash, "Aren't hyenas 'nature's hyenas'?"

"How should I know?" Slash questioned. "I've never been to Africa." But he looked to her, and stated, "But you need to transform into Battle Mode. Right now."

"No problem," Twilight replied, as she grabbed the Star pendant, and in a flash of purple, she was in her battle form, startling Applejack in the process. When Twilight noticed this, she nodded, "Yeah, it's real."

Suddenly, the timber wolves launched at them, as Twilight scooped up Slash and ran to Applejack. As they pounced right at them, Twilight instinctively formed a bubble shield around them. Once the wolves struck it, they bounced off, as they crashed on the ground, turning back into driftwood. Applejack blinked, as she asked, looking at the bubble around them, "How'd you do that?"

"I practiced this a day ago," Twilight confessed. "So far, I can only make a bubble big enough to fit 2-3 people, but it'll still be strong enough. Now run!"

Not wanting to argue with her, Applejack and her sped in the bubble, going pretty fast. Though for Slash, he was being spun around with no chance of keeping up with them at all, as he cried out for the crazy ride to stop.

* * *

**Back at the Barn**

When they arrive, they find Pinkie, transformed and fending off the Timberwolves with some strange kind of move. Apparently, she had formed around the house an infantry line of cannons made out of ice. She used fast wave movements to fire the cannons, shooting out big cannon balls made of ice and snow. They fired out barrages of snow and ice at the charging Timber Wolves, knocking them back or freezing them in place. Though she almost shot the glowing purple hamster wheel coming at her, if she hadn't seen Twilight or Applejack in it.

Once they rolled in, Twilight brought back the bubble, allowing the three of them free movement out. Of course, Twilight was huffing on her knees at this moment, catching her breath, as she gasped, "That… was longer than what I expected to do…"

Applejack got a good look at Pinkie's abilities, as well as the Ice Party Cannons she was using to fight. She then asked, "What are you doin'? Having a snow fight?"

"I'm not making a snow fight," Pinkie Pie answered, as she stopped, and then snapped her fingers. Suddnely, the ice cannons spewed out a spray of water that instantly froze the Timber Wolves on contact, creating a blast of what could only be described as a Whiteout Blast of nearly sub zero degrees, shattering the wolves.

Pinkie whipped around, and smirked at the two, giving them a thumbs up, "It's a snow massacre! Yay for us!"

Both Applejack and Twilight sweat dropped at the viciousness of the attack, but at Pinkie's cheerfulness. Slash, on the other hand, voiced his opinion, "Wow. I daresay, you're becoming quite one of the most skilled at your Element of Harmony… and the most dangerously unpredictable."

Pinkie casually shrugged, "It's all a work in progress."

Applejack snapped out of it, as she ran to Pinkie Pie, "Hey! Where's mah family? They in the house?"

Pinkie nodded, "Yeah, but they're all frozen in place."

"YOU FROZE THEM?!" Applejack shouted in anger.

Pinkie, unfazed by the outburst, shook her head, "No, silly. That wouldn't be nice. What I'm trying to say is that something else froze them in place; almost like time…"

"Like time stopped in place," Twilight finished, realizing the severity of the situation. "Girls. I think I know what… or who, did this."

Applejack turned around, and then faced her angered face at Twilight, who shrunk back, as the blonde nearly got in her face, "Who? WHO DID THIS?!"

"Me."

The trio looked up, and saw on the roof of the house… Nightmare Moon. She casually walked on to the left, as she clicked her nails together, "I must say, Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle, the two of you have come a long way from simply making water and shields. Well, Pinkie Pie for that matter." She then disdainfully shrugged out, "Though, you still have long to go, Twilight Sparkle before you're even a match for me… or my master."

Twilight blinked at that last part, "Master?" Slash seemed to look wary at that last part as well, as he tried to avoid the girls' eye contact at all.

But Applejack shot out, "What'd you do to mah family?!"

"Wait a moment, are you… Applejack?" Nightmare Moon's voice spoke up, echoing all around them. "So you found the Bearer of Honesty then. But shouldn't she be chummier to you all then? I mean, after all… you're all friends, right?"

Applejack frowned, not looking at Twilight or Pinkie, as she answered, "We ain't chummy; and they ain't my friends."

"Oh Good; a neutral party," Nightmare Moon said, as she suddenly appeared at the front door in front of the girls, and then looked to the right, as she huffed, "Then, I'm going to ignore you. But, you must be used to that, by now..."

Applejack spotted her and charged right at her, attempting to tackle her, despite Twilight calling her out to stop. But as soon as she reached contact, Nightmare Moon's body became like mist, causing the girl to go through her and crash into the floor of the house. Nightmare Moon brushed off the assault, as she replied, "As for your earlier question, I simply froze everyone out of time. They're not aware of what's going on, and quite frankly, I don't want the audience; like my master, I'm trying to keep things as subtle and quiet as possible before the eclipse."

"I don't care about that," Applejack shouted, as she glared daggers at Nightmare Moon. "Let mah family go!"

"Of course I will," Nightmare Moon stated, and then smirked, "All you have to do… is fight Twilight Sparkle."

Pinkie Pie gasped out in a panic, "WHAT?!"

Twilight went wide eye, "What?!"

But Slash looked defiant, "There's no way she'd…"

Suddenly, Applejack charged at Twilight, fists barraging at her, but luckily, Twilight put up a shield on her to stop it from taking blows. "Applejack! What are you doing," Twilight cried out in a panic.

"I hafta do this," Applejack stated, as she spun on one foot, "Fer mah family!" And delivered a powerful round-house kick, that sent Twilight flying into a tree.

Suddenly, as if triggered on instinct, the Element of Honesty began to glow brightly. Fire surrounded her body, as her clothes dissolved in the flames, and her body glowed orange. The fire then cocooned her for only a few moments, and then dissipated, revealing Applejack in her battle form.

She was wearing a brown pacha tank top, with her midriff exposed, and that covered her shoulders, along with a red bandanna. She also had a Native American style mini skirt with a yellow braided belt with three apple gem buckles, and on the back was a long braid extension of the belt with the end of it braided with a green apple bead as big as a baseball with a little yellow tuff at the end, making it look like a tail. She also had brown arm guards that went from her knuckles to her elbows in a point, and on the back of the hand red gem opals that glowed a little. She also had on knee-high cowboy boots with green opal gems on the outside of her ankles with three feathers on them. And to complete her look was a brown headband with a red gem in the center, and two green gem ears with three feathers sticking out of them.

Both Pinkie and Slash paled at this, as the dragon made the situation obvious, "Oh crud! She transformed! This is bad in this kind of situation."

"Let's stop them," Pinkie stated, and ran forward… only to crash into an invisible wall.

Suddenly, an invisible box prison was placed around them, as Slash looked up at the source, being Nightmare Moon. "Terribly sorry for the cage," Nightmare Moon apologized. "But I can't very well allow you to interrupt the fight. For now, just watch."

Pinkie Pie righted herself again, as she padded the walls, and then paled in a panic, as she cried out, "OMG! She's turned me into a mime!"

Applejack charged at Twilight, who raised a shield in time for the punch. However, Applejack's fists lit on fire, as a powerful blast of flames swarmed over Twilight once Applejack's fist made contact. Once the flames died down, Applejack hopped up, and delivered a powerful double stomp kick, that sent Twilight flying across the fields of the apple acres.

Applejack blinked at that, as she looked at her hands, "Ah… Ah did that?"

'Yes, you did,' Nightmare Moon spoke in her mind.

Applejack nearly blinked in terror, as she freaked out, "Wha? How…?"

'It's a simple telepathy spell,' Nightmare spoke up. 'Your abilities focus on Fire and Increased Herculean Levels. As a former Earth Pony, your skills revolved around the Earth, commanding and gaining power from it. Now use it to complete the request asked of you: defeat Twilight Sparkle!'

Applejack looked to the recovering Twilight, as she managed to get back onto her feet. But then Twilight paled as she saw Applejack charging for her, and Twilight fired a few rounds of purple energies at her. But understanding of her element, Applejack shot upward, using flames to rocket herself up. She then shot herself down, delivering another powerful double kick. But this time, Twilight put a lot of magic in it, creating a bubble shield around her as Applejack struck down on it, but the bubble bounced her off, as she skid on the ground, but then charged right at her, delivering powerful fire punches at it hoping to weaken the bubble.

"Give it up," Applejack shouted, as she poured more flames in it. "Jest give up, and mah family will be let go!"

"You really think she'll do that," Twilight strained to keep the bubble up. "She'll backstab you the minute you're done with me. Or wrose… force you to do the same to Pinkie Pie! It isn't just your family on the line! It's mine as well!"

"SHUTUP" Applejack roared, out, as she pushed further, causing heat to surround the bubble, and then immediately… blew up around it.

The brilliant flames nearly danced around but dissipated, as Twilight was lying on the ground, in a heap and exhausted from the intense heat.

Nightmare Moon clapped as she smiled proudly at Applejack's triumphant win, "Excellent. You did it." She stopped clapping, and became more relaxed, as she smiled, "Now kill her."

Applejack's eyes went wide with shock, as were the others, as Applejack turned to her terrified to do such a thing, "Bu-But y'all said I had to beat her. That was it."

"And now I'm saying you need to kill her to make the win an official," Nightmare Moon replied. But Applejack looked worried, as she looked to Twilight, and Twilight could see that the country blonde girl was having second thoughts, as well as conflicting feelings on this. But Nightmare Moon's voice spoke up, this time with anger and impatience, "Do it! Or I will send your family into a nightmare world… from which there is no waking!"

Applejack looked back to Twilight, her right fist opening up, and a ball of flame was building up, going from a ping pong ball to a basketball slowly. Twilight could feel the intense heat building up in front of her, as she paled, knowing full well this was the end. She couldn't believe Applejack was willing to do this. But then she carefully looked at her face… and saw tears streaming down, as well as a face of worry of this deed that was forced upon her without her choosing.

Twilight managed to speak to her, as she assured her, "Applejack… you don't have to do this…"

"Ah don't have a choice," she stated. She then looked worried, as she clenched her eyes, as she confessed, "Ah don't know what else to do…"

Twilight thought about it for a moment, as it was peculating in her head, 'Maybe… just maybe, I can use that spell…' She took a deep breath, and then replied, "Attack."

Applejack went wide eye with shock, as she stated, "Are y'all insane? This'll kill ya. For real."

"Trust me, everything's going to be alright," Twilight assured her yet gain.

"Even _ah_ know that's a lie," Applejack stated, copying Twilight's words.

"Now listen, Applejack," Twilight advised her, giving her an honest smile on her face, "What _I'm_ saying to you is the honest to goodness truth. If you attack me, this will all be over. I promise." Applejack still looked hesitant, as the ball was getting more powerful, as Twilight pressed on, "I'm begging you to trust me, Applejack… as _I_ trusted you with your honesty."

Applejack blinked for a moment, until she hear and saw the honesty in this girl. Taking a deep breath, Applejack launched her attack.

Far away back at the farm, Nightmare Moon and the others saw the huge explosion of flames and earth erupting like a volcano. Pinkie Pie and Slash looked at the scene with horror on their faces: something that Pinkie rarely had at all. But Nightmare Moon was shocked to see that at least.

"Well… I never expected the two to disintegrate each other like that. All the master wanted was for the 6th Element to be destroyed," Nightmare Moon replied. But then returned to normal, as she shrugged, "Oh well. Two less guardians to worry about."

Suddenly, a purple flash appeared behind her, as she whipped around, and on the roof top, with Applejack still charging up another attack, as well as Twilight, still alive, and spoke up, "That's what you think, Nightmare Moon." She looked to Applejack, "Now!"

"Got it!" Applejack shouted, and then fired a massive blast right at a stunned Nightmare Moon.

The dark-haired woman screamed out, feeling the raw power that wsa unleashed upon her, as her being disintegrated within the flames. As they died down, the two looked as they saw that the flames die down and show a black spot to where Nightmare Moon was at. Immediately, everything defroze from the time spell, as well as allowing Pinkie and Slash to be freed, as Pinkie fell face first into the ground.

Slash, on the other hand, blinked at the sight, "They disintegrated her." But tapped his chin in thought, as he told himself, "That never happened…"

"ARGH!" Nightmare Moon's voice bellowed out as an echo for them all to hear. "This is not over, Twilight Sparkle! The fight is far from ending… SO MY MASTER DECREES!"

Pinkie Pie managed to get up on her feet, as Twilight and Applejack ported down to her, as she pointed out, "Boy, that girl needs to see some major anger management. She's got some serious issues…"

* * *

**An Hour Later**

Once the spell had worn off the girls had to change back, and help out to explain the situation. Though when they got back, it was like time had already kept going. They weren't even aware that a whole thirty minutes had passed them at all. So there was at least a little bit of relief. The girls and Spike were currently walking down the path to go home, but Twilight was a bit wiped out, as she leaned on Pinkie.

Spike had noticed it, as he asked, "Wow, Twi… you're pretty tuckered out. What happened?"

"At a guess, she used her Teleportation spell a little too soon before she was strong enough," Slash explained, as he popped out of Twilight's backpack. "Just using it once was enough to tucker you out, not to mention all the shield spells you had."

"Yeah," Twilight groaned, as she replied, "Though I wish I knew basic combat; it would have made things way easier for me."

"Aaaaaaaaand now we have something else to teach you," Pinkie Pie chimed out, helping her friend to keep going.

However, they heard the engine of a truck coming up from behind them, as they stopped to see who it was. They half-expected for Big Mac to be in the truck, but as the door opened… it was Applejack. And she was smiling, as she tilted her hat, "Hey, y'all. Need a lift to where?"

The trio looked to one another, as Spike answered for them, "Alright then." And then hopped in the front passenger seat. The other girls shrugged, as Pinkie Pie got in the back of the truck, and Twilight sat in the middle, as Applejack hopped in. The truck started moving on, as they headed for the open gate.

They were all a bit silent for a moment, as they drove forward. Until Applejack spoke up, looking to Twilight, "Look, Twilight…"

"Call me Twi," Twilight spoke up, smiling. "Seems like everybody else does."

Applejack smirked, "Twi. Ah'm sorry fer the way I acted when y'all showed up. Or the way how I treated afterwards… or during…"

Twilight held a hand up, as she simply replied, "I know. I was pretty much the same as you; not wanting to make friends, since I felt they could end up backstabbing you or… well, you know. And you didn't have a choice or an alternative at the time. I'm just glad I could help."

Pinkie Pie sticks her head in between the two from the back window, as she asked, "So… does this make us friends?"

Applejack thought about it for a moment, and then turned to the two and smirked, "Yeah, yer stuck with me like apple tree sap on yer fingers."

Twilight arched an eyebrow and smirked, "I still don't get those countryisms, but we'll have enough time to figure them out."

Applejack smirked, as she grabbed Twilight's hand and shook it, "Ah look forward to it, Twi."

"YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" Pinkie Pie squealed out, causing everyone to jump and nearly had Applejack nearly veer off the road, until she managed to right themselves. Pinkie Pie was outside, dancing in the back, "WE GOT A NEW FRIEND! WE GOT A NEW FRIEND! YEAY! WHEN WE GET BACK, IT'S PARTY TIME!"

As Applejack steadies the wheel, she looked to Twilight, and asked, "What exactly is the life expectancy for us hangin' around a crazy critter like Pinkie Pie, Twi?"

"Hopefully long. As long as she's aware of what kind of danger we're in," Twilight replied.

Though Spike popped in between, as he sarcastically stated, "She might outlive us all. You know that, right?"

* * *

**Next Chapter: A Beautiful Heart of Gold; The Diamond of Generosity**

* * *

**I apologize for the rushness of this chapter, but some people wanted to see it done quickly. I don't blame them, blame me for not thinking of a longer battle.**


	7. A Goldent Heart of Generosity pt1

**Equestria Guardians; Friendship is Magic**

* * *

**Chapter 7: A Beautiful Heart of Gold; the Diamond of Generosity pt.1**

* * *

**Few Days Later**

**Twilight's Lab/Home**

**Training Room**

After they had brought Applejack into the circle, Slash realized that Twilight had little to no combat training with her magic. And so a new room had been added to Twilight's lab in a new door, created by Space Magic. The key was that it created a separate dimensional room as big as the lab, or bigger. Once they entered it, with the girls wearing gi uniforms, like they did in Karate classes, with Applejack's hat off, her hands and forearms bandaged up, Pinkie and Twilight's hair ponytailed up, they were stunned to say the least of the various obstacles on the course. Deflective arrows with a balancing jade-colored turtle shell in one corner. Another corner was an army of wooden crocodile warriors that were similar to the wooden warriors Martial Artists used to practice arm and hand moves and blocks. A Field of Fiery Death for evasion and anticipation, and a row of seven-talon rings swinging back and forth like pendulums. And then finally was a swinging spike club walking platform, with spinning serpent logs to finish it off.

The girls were in awestruck, as Spike blinked at it as well, as he asked, "Isn't this a little overkill?"

"Well, Twilight's in need of making sure she's physically strong with her magic," Slash stated as he was perched on Spike's head. "This is best as we get. And this is only the beginner's equipment."

Applejack, not as worried as the sweating Twilight, shrugged, "This is Beginners?"

"Yep," Slash nodded, "So let's begin."

"Wait, what?" Twilight nearly squeaked out, as she looked at the fearsome course in front of her. "Right now?"

"Yeah," Slash said, as he explained. "Your magic can also be used to physically enhance your speed and strength. The stronger you are with your magic, the more uses and more powerful you'll be, in power and physical strength."

Twilight gulped, as she twiddled her fingers, "Oh, okay. Well... I don't know if I can do all of this..."

"Well, if we don't try, we'll never know," Slash said, as he tapped Spike's head, as the two walked along the side of the course, with the girls following. "Well, we'll try something more suited to your level."

"Which in this case, is level zero on the physical," Spike stated. "She can't even jog down the neighborhood without wheezing or collapsing in less than a few seconds."

Twilight frowned, "SPIKE!"

"Wow, you're really terrible when it comes to sports," Pinkie commented.

"Alright then, Level Zero it is for now," Slash stated. "Though there's no such thing as a Level Zero."

Twilight sighed, at this assault on her physical strength and abilities. She looked around, and lit up, as she pointed to something in the corner, "Hey! Maybe I can start with this!"

When they looked over to where she pointed and ran over to, they saw a friendly-looking raccoon bandit dummy. Applejack examined it over, as she pointed out, "I dunno, Twi. This 'ere looks like somethin' ya use ta train kids. Ah would know: I had somethin' like dis back at home."

"Really?" Pinkie asked. "Does Apple Bloom use it?"

"Nah, we mostly use ours ta pry open the barn door when it's summer time," Applejack replied.

"Well, it's better than nothing," Slash said, as he flew on a pole next to it, and gestured to Twilight, "Well, Twilight. Go ahead, and show us what you can do."

Twilight blinked, as she nearly froze up, "Right now? Or should we wait until lunch?"

"Just hit it," Spike groaned.

Twilight sighed, as she looked at the dummy, and sized it up, almost in thought, as Pinkie Pie asked, "What are you doing, Twilight?"

"I'm measuring the distance and angles, and calculating…"

"It's just a punch, Twi," Applejack sighed. "Ain't nuthin' but ballin' the fist, reelin' it back, and assertin' yerself."

Twilight was silent for a moment, until she stalled again, "But maybe if I…"

"Would you hit it?!" Slash roared out, losing his patience.

"Alright, alright," Twilight said, as she finally got ready. Hesitantly, she very light hit the dummy with her fist, as it gently rocked back in place. She looked to the others, who all had a frown on their faces, as she asked, "What?"

"Try again," Slash replied. "This time, though, do it harder."

Twilight sighed, and this time, Twilight knocked the dummy all the way backwards. "Alright, how's that…"

WHACK!

The Dummy righted itself and whacked Twilight, sending her flying backwards and knocking around. Twilight found herself on the training course, as everyone stepped forward to try and help. But all they could see was Twilight struggling to balance on the serpent logs, and eventually ended up doing a painful split on two of them. "Ack! That hurts!"

She looked up and saw a spiky tethered ball, which smacked into her and sent her flying into the jade turtle exercise, where it rattled her around. Everyone winced, as Slash grimaced at the scene, "This may be harder than I thought."

"I'm feeling nauseous!" Twilight cried out.

The turtle finally spilled her out as she stumbled into the army of wooden warriors, proceeded to whack every part of her body. The last dummy whapped her into the stomach, and everything was knocked out of her, as she wheezed out, "Oooooh, good thing I didn't eat yet."

She struggled to get on her feet again, taking one step and reached out to a dummy arm… and immediately got pummeled all over again. Twilight came out the other side, battered and bruised… as well as standing on the Field of Fiery Death.

When she realized this, she squeaked out, "Oh no…"

A huge swoosh of fire erupted, as its reflection on the others were shown, as Twilight yelled out, as she got singed. After a while, she came back to them, crawling into view, dazed and charred, with a little strand on her head on fire. She collapsed in front of them, face first, as she sighed in pain and exhaustion, until she gasped for breath, and looked at them, "How did I do?"

Slash flew down to her, and walked over to her dazed face, "Congratulations, Twilight. There is now a Level Zero." And then he put out the fire with his little fingers.

Twilight weakly smiled, "Okay…" and fell unconscious.

* * *

**Afterwards**

**Canterlot Academy**

After their physical training, Twilight was limping through the hallways, as lunch was about to start. Applejack and Pinkie Pie had headed off to class after her, since they weren't in her state. And Spike went off to class as well, with Slash in his backpack. Which at this point, Twilight thought he'd be thankful… since once she was feeling better, she'd tan him a new one for putting her through all that.

"Ugh, this is why I hate physical fitness," Twilight groaned, shuffling through the hall like a mummy. She winched as she tried to go further, but the feeling of the bruises and sore spots had gotten to her easily, "Ugh. I should have learned healing spells first than attack spells…"

"Twilight?"

Twilight turned around, as she saw Flash Sentry walking in nearby, as he looked at her confused in her condition. When he saw the bruises, he knelt down to help her up, much to her embarrassment, as he asked in concern, "What happened? You look like you went through day one of boot camp."

"Oh, it's nothing too serious, Flash. I..." she tried to reassure him, but thought in a quick panic. 'Come on Twilight, think of something that doesn't involve training.' Suddenly sweating on nervousness, she finally and goofily replied, "… I slept in by accident and rushed to school leading to a few accidents. Nothing major." Flash looked a little confused on that, but Twilight looked away as she looked stupefied, 'That's the best I could come up with on the spot?'

"Well, you should really go to the nurse's office to make sure it's nothing serious," Flash kindly advised.

Twilight shook it off, as she weakly smiled, "No, I'm fine. Thanks though." She attempted to go on, but she suddenly felt a bit of pain from her leg, as she winced.

Flash, realizing she was hurt, gently grabbed her arm, and looked it around his neck, "Come on, I'll go with you."

Twilight blushed at that, but asked, "But won't you be late for class?"

"Class isn't for a little bit," Flash insisted, as he smiled at her, as he helped her walk to the nurse's office. "Come on, it's just down a flight of stairs."

Twilight smiled, as she looked away, hiding a blush, "Thanks, Flash."

But unknown to her, Flash was hiding a blush himself.

* * *

**Nurse's Office**

Once they got to the nurse's office, the nurse got to work with Twilight. She had applied some ointment on the bruises, and carefully examined the state of what she was in. After a moment of detail, and with Flash sitting next to Twilight, the Nurse had made her conclusion.

"It's nothing serious, just a few blows to the body," the nurse reassured Twilight as well as Flash. "After a little bit, she should be fine."

Twilight smiled, as she sighed, "Thanks, I figured it wasn't anything serious."

"Better to be safe than sorry though," Flash smirked.

"I agree," the nurse replied. "Although I'm surprised as that you were caught in a situation that would end up receiving so many blows at once."

A nervous Twilight looked away, as she rubbed the back of her neck, "Yes, just one of those crazy coincidences that happens every now and then."

"Indeed. I'll be right over here in case you need anything else," the nurse said, as she walked over to a room connected to the nurse's area, that being the storage or office area in which she did her paperwork at. However, if anyone had noticed as she walked past the glass display window… Nightmare Moon was in place of the nurse's reflection, indicating it was Nightmare Moon in a magical disguise.

At the moment, both Twilight and Flash were alone, sitting next to one another on the bed. It was rather infuriating on the situation, as this had been the longest time the two had been with one another after five years. Or even remotely started to be near one another aside from the field trip. The two were nervous as ever, as the silence between the two was going on the brink of nervousness. Finally, the two quickly turned to each other in order to speak up.

"So-" they both said in perfect unison. At the sudden realization, both turned away in embarrassment, hiding their blushing faces from one another.

"Well, um… the weather's nice today, isn't it," Twilight spoke up, breaking the embarrassing silence.

"Yeah, really nice," Flash responded, not turning to look at her.

But a good thing too, because Twilight looked worried, and was screaming to herself in her head, 'What am I talking about?! What's wrong with my brain?! The weather?! UGH!'

'UGH! Man, what's wrong with that response?! Really nice,' Flash berated himself. But then thought of something, as he realized it sooner than later, 'Well… maybe this is a better time than ever.' In truth, after five years, there had been a question on his mind, and this was no better time to ask, as he turned to her with a smile, "So, um… Twilight?"

Quickly, Twilight wiped the worry off her face, as she asked, "Yes, Flash? What is it?"

Flash took a deep breath, and just tried to play it close to the vest… and failed miserably, as he asked, "What happened after the field trip five years ago? After what happened, you just up and disappeared. Well, until now."

Twilight was surprised to hear that question, and then had a face that was a mixture of both dread and embarrassment written on her face. She sighed deeply, as she looked away from him in shame, but finally managed to answer, "W-Well, I was… um…" she sighed again, as she finally managed to get the truth out, "I was in therapy after what I saw and experienced in the store the teacher found me in. The one where you all saw me bolt out of with a look of sheer terror on my face."

"The antique store you were in," Flash asked to be sure.

'Great. Now he's going to think I'm nuts just like everyone else does,' Twilight thought in dread, as she nodded, giving him a sad look, "Yeah, that's the one."

Flash then asked, "Do you mind if I ask what happened in that store that day?"

Twilight sighed, as she looked up at the ceiling, shaking her head, "You wouldn't believe me, I probably wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself."

When he heard that, Flash could tell she was nervous about it. But why she was so nervous on it, was the real mystery. So he scooted closer to her, making her feel a little nervous. He placed a hand on her shoulder, getting her to turn to him, as he sympathetically smirked to her, "How about you let me decide if I believe it or not?"

When those words uttered through, Twilight's face obtained an innocent blush on her face, as she looked away in thought, 'Should I? I mean I have to keep this a secret, but he's the first one to ever want to hear what happened without thinking I'm nuts.' Deciding to take this chance, she sighed as she looked to Flash, and smiled nervously, "Well-"

But the moment was ruined at that point, as the door slammed open, startling the two. At that moment, Rarity and her aid groupies barged in. And in the process, caused Flash and Twilight to separate and act like nothing happened.

Rarity's aide smashed through, as he called out, "Nurse! We have an emergency!"

The nurse suddenly ran in, as she asked looking frantic, "What! What is it?"

Rarity was swooning, acting like she was about to faint, as she pressed the back of her hand, and looked up at the ceiling, acting all dramatic, "Of all the things that could happen, this is THE! WORST! POSSIBLE! THING!"

"Yes," the nurse urged for the problem to be introduced.

"It's just too much for me to handle anymore," Rarity cried out.

"Yes…" the nurse urged, pushing for the answer.

"It's just… it's just… IT'S TOO MUCH TO BEAR!" Rarity continued to cry out in dramatic agony.

The nurse got fed up, as she screamed, "Well, what is it?! You're making me hysterical!"

Rarity brought up her left hand as she displayed her fingers to show. In this, she revealed her showing her finger. She then wailed out like a banshee who missed her favorite show, "I. Broke. A nai-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l!"

At that moment, a wave of silence washed over the scene. The three people who weren't with Rarity merely looked at the scene, as a small gust of wind blew by, and a tiny cricket chirped. The silence broke, as both Flash and Twilight stood up, as the latter asked, "She broke a nail?"

"She broke her nail!" one of the aides got into Twilight's face. "How would you feel if your fingernail got broken after helping someone open their can of soda!?"

Twilight huffed in annoyance, as did Flash, as they saw the violet haired girl's overreaction, as well as her staff helping her out like she was some sort of goddess. Flash shook his head, as he got up, and headed for the cabinet to get more bandages.

But at that moment, Twilight's backpack let out a small light. Twilight was the only one to notice it, as she pulled it to her, and opened it. There, where she kept the remaining three Elements of Harmony, one of them was glowing up a reaction. There, the Element of Harmony, which was the violet diamond, was illuminating on and off. Once Twilight pulled it out, it began to brighten and pulsate, which surprised the girl.

Flash took notice of Twilight's shocked face, as he got the wrong idea, "Twilight, it's just a broken nail. I don't think she'll have to…"

"Sorry, Flash, but I gotta go," Twilight ran out of the office, leaving a confused and dejected Flash again.

He sighed, knowing that another chance to ask her what happened that day had gone down the tubes, "Darn. Not again."

As she ran to her class, Twilight's mind was questioning the obviousness of what she had discovered moments ago, "Rarity? A Guardian?"

* * *

**Later that Day**

"Rarity? A Guardian?" Applejack asked out of shock. "Y'all are jokin' on that, right?"

After school, twilight had rounded up with Pinkie and Applejack, along with Spike and Slash, as she had told them the news. Spike was awestruck and heart throbbing at the moment, Slash was in contemplation. But Twilight shrugged, "That's what I saw. The Element of Generosity glowed immediately when Rarity entered the nurse's office. It has to be her."

"Rarity…" Spike cooed with hearts swarming all around his head.

Applejack and Twilight looked at the boy in a bit of concern, but the cowgirl snapped out of it, as she looked to Pinkie Pie, as she asked, "What about ya, Pinkie?"

But both girls and the dragon puppy went wide eye, as they saw Pinkie Pie not paying attention. But instead was break dancing to the song she was listening to on her Ipod. It was evident, as she sang, "Dance Fo Yo Bees. Dance-Dance Fo Yo Bees. All I want to do is Dance… FO YO BEES!" once she struck a pose and finished her song, Pinkie Pie returned to her cheerful self, and blinked, seeing everyone's shocked expressions, as she pulled her headphones off, and asked, "Sorry, what?"

The two groaned, as Twilight repeated, "We think that Rarity might be the Bearer and Guardian of Generosity."

Pinkie lit up, giving way to puppy dog eyes, as she gushed out, jumping around, "ALRIGHT! We get another friend~! We get another friend~! Whoopee!"

"Yeah, I still ain't buyin' it," Applejack retorted. "Ah mean, I may not 'ave seem ta be payin' attention around, but ah was observin' all the time. And ah gotta tell ya: popular girls like that ain't thinkin' nuthin' much but themselves and their looks." She then pointed to the Element of Generosity, as she stated, "Maybe that darn thing's broken or somethin'."

Pinkie's goofy and energetic demeanor dropped, as she examined her friends closely with an arched eyebrow, as she asked, "And why is that a problem? And why do you think the Element is broken? It's magic. Duh."

"I jus' gave ya the list, Pinkie Pie," Applejack shot out trying to get a point through. She looked to Twilight, as she stated, "Twilight. Try an' defend me on this one, please?"

Twilight sighed, as she stated her opinion, "I have to admit, but Applejack might be right. I've been around girls like that, even when I was ten. They are kind of a shallow bunch when you look at it analytically. I mean, I'm having a lot of doubts that she could be one of the Guardians to the Elements of Harmony."

But Pinkie Pie waved it off, as she stated, "Nah, that's just a typical stereotype, you two." She crossed her arms, as she smirked, "Besides, I have a good feeling she's a good person."

"Yeah, me too," Spike said, finally snapped out of his love-struck gaze.

Slash sat up on the bench, and asked, "You two ever talked to her? Has anyone among us here, aside from me, ever talk to her?"

As soon as that question echoed among them, the two slouched down, as they both answered in defeat, "No."

But Pinkie Pie perked up, as she stated, "Well, the truth is she's always around the Student Council."

"Those groupies?" Applejack asked.

Pinkie Pie nodded, "Yeah. They don't let anyone get close to her."

"Hey, speaking of Rarity…" Slash pointed out. "She's coming this way."

The girls and Spike looked to be assured of this, and saw Rarity walking in their direction. Quickly, and before Spike could go on one of his ogling stare off moments, they ducked for cover in some bushes nearby. Rarity walked past them without even knowing that she had an audience observing her in the shadows. Once she was out the gate, the others got up, as they looked to one another.

"Where do you think she's going at this hour of the day," Twilight asked.

"Oooh, I know where I'd be: a malt shop getting a triple hot-fudge sundae shake," Pinkie Pie said, as she licked her lips up. "Hmmmm… sundaes…"

Both Spike and Slash went deadpanned on that, as Spike replied, "That's some place you'd go, Pinkie."

"Knowin' her type, she's gone ta some fancy salon ta get a perm or a pedicure," Applejack shot out looking unamused.

But Twilight wasn't about to deter on the board of defeat, as she hopped out, "Well, either way, we need to be certain about the Element of Generosity."

* * *

**2 Hours Later**

**Downtown**

After nearly two hours of searching around the city, the trio of girls and Spike were groaning of exhaustion. They were currently sitting on a bench near a restaurant, as they were trying to wipe away the exhaustion that plagued them on an endless and fruitless search for Rarity. They had lost her mid-way when they attempted to tail her, but every time she turned around, they had to hide again. The last time they hid, it was on the subway, and they had lost her in the crowd. Now, they had to try and find her once more. So far… nothing came up. Spike got up, and pulled out Slash, as he put him on his sister's lap, as he walked away.

"I'm callin' it quits; my feet are killing me," Spike argued. "We'll try again tomorrow." And then walked back to the underground lab/training grounds.

Applejack groaned, as she pulled off her hat, as she sighed, "I gotta admit, ah'm stumped. Ah honestly thought she'd be there at those places."

Pinkie just slouched, as she clawed at the skies, "Missed… so many… dessert coffee bars… on the search. Missed… taste test… opportunities… Ugh." And fell off the bench in a heap, as she moaned, "Sugar… need energy…"

Twilight sat up, as she sighed, "Well, Spike's got the right idea. We should try tomorrow."

Slash hopped off of Twilight's lap and landed on Pinkie's head, as he was firm on finding Rarity, "Now hold on a moment. There might be a way to find her."

Twilight seemed to perk up a bit, as she asked, "How?"

"You said that the Element of Generosity glowed when it was in her presence, right?" Slash asked, and then determined. "Well, then the only way we'll find her is by using the Element."

Twilight stood up and dug in her backpack, fishing out the Element of Generosity. As she held it out in her hand, holding it out like a compass, the diamond-shaped jewel glowed in the direction it stopped at. Applejack stood up, waving herself with her hat, as Pinkie suddenly shot up, fully energized again, as Applejack was amazed by the turn of events, "Hoowee. That darn thing there's like a dowsin' rod."

"Alrighty then! Let's find her!" Pinkie Pie jumped up, as the trio of girls ran to follow the light of the gem.

After a while, they had finally made their way into a more friendly section of down town. It was only then that they had reached to where the diamond gem had led them to. It was a homeless shelter, as it looked like a few homeless people were walking about. As the girls investigated, Pinkie Pie asked, "Wow. You think Rarity came into this place?"

Twilight looked around, and then spotted the girl in question, working together with chefs in preparing meals and was planning to take them out to the people. "Definitely."

* * *

**Next Chapter: A Beautiful Heart of Gold; the Diamond of Generosity pt.2**


End file.
